Private Client & Trusts

Members of the team have extensive experience in both contentious and non-contentious private client matters both in England and in foreign jurisdictions. They are able to advise, conduct litigation, and draft documents in all areas of expertise including:

• Construction and rectification of wills and trusts
• Challenges to the validity of wills, including testamentary capacity and undue influence claims
• Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
• Removal and substitution of personal representatives
• Constructive and resulting trusts
• Proprietary estoppel claims
• Re Beddoe and Re Benjamin orders
• Conflict of laws in trusts and estates
• Trustees’ powers and duties
• Variation of trusts
• Claims against personal representatives and trustees
• Administration of estates
• Quistclose trusts
• Insolvent estates
• Succession planning
• Offshore trusts
• Charitable trusts
• Court of Protection applications
• Lasting and enduring powers of attorney
• Professional negligence in estate and trust matters
• Pensions

Our barristers regularly undertake private client work internationally (including in Dubai, Guernsey, the Caribbean, and US jurisdictions), and we have members who can advise on Islamic law. Our foreign associates in France, Russia, the US and UAE are also able to advise on international private client matters. 

Members from Outer Temple Chambers have appeared in some of the leading cases in the private client field including:

• Marley v Rawlings [2014] UKSC 2 – the leading Supreme Court case on the validity, construction and rectification of wills.
• White v Jones [1995] AC 207
• Royal Bank of Scotland Plc v Etridge (No 2) [2001] UKHL 44
• MN v OP [2019] EWCA Civ 679 – In the Court of Appeal, considered the application of rules of privacy and the principle of open justice in variation of trust applications.
• M v St Anne’s Trustees Ltd (Guernsey Court of Appeal) – the first appellate consideration of the rule in Hastings Bass since Pitt v Holt.
• Briggs & Ors v Clay & Ors [2019] EWHC 102 (Ch)
• Banfield v Campbell [2018] EWHC 1943 (Ch) – Inheritance Act claim by a cohabiting partner
• Gaydamak v Leviev [2014] EWHC 1167 (Ch) – breach of trust and estoppel
• Re R (Deceased) [2021] EWHC 936 (Ch) – Inheritance Act claim by estranged minor children
• Places for People Retirement Benefit Scheme
• SPS Technologies Ltd v SPS
•  Morley v Morley [2023] WTLR 299
• Re Mendy (deceased) [2023]

Members frequently write and speak on Probate and Trusts issues and are active in the Probate and Trusts associations:

• David Russell KC sits on the board of STEP Worldwide and is co-editor of Trusts and Trustees (Oxford University Press)
• Teresa Rosen Peacocke is a member of STEP and ACTAPS, and a qualified mediator.
• Elaine Palser is a member of STEP, ACTAPS and ConTrA, a qualified mediator, and a former lecturer and examiner in Trusts at Oxford University.

Various members of the Private Client Team are trained mediators and we advise and offer mediation where appropriate:

• David Russell KC
• Elaine Palser
• Teresa Rosen-Peacocke