Boodle Hatfield LLP

Andrea Zavos

Andrea is the Senior Partner at Boodle Hatfield and a member of the contentious trust and estates team. She specialises in advising individuals, trustees and trust companies in complex, high value disputes both domestically and internationally. Andrea is acutely aware that family relationships are often at stake and she takes that responsibility seriously. She is highly regarded for her ability to engage with clients and other professionals in a sympathetic and constructive manner. If she needs to fight, she will do so but otherwise her focus is always on achieving a mediated settlement. She also works closely with wealthy families on succession planning including wills, trusts and long term tax planning and succession structures.

Andrew Wilmot-Smith

Andrew is the Head of Property at Boodle Hatfield. He acts for a wide variety of property businesses including family offices, entrepreneurs, family trusts and private and institutional asset managers, across a wide spectrum of commercial property development and investment, both in prime Central London and across the UK. He has considerable experience in large-scale development schemes, and in acquiring City investment property.

Andrew Loan

Andrew is a corporate tax lawyer with over 20 years' experience advising on a wide variety of corporate tax and VAT matters, particularly taxation issues in the context of acquisitions and disposals of public and private companies, and also the taxation of corporate groups, finance, real estate and investment funds, and tax investigations and disputes. He holds a Chartered Tax Adviser qualification, which is known as the highest and most prestigious chartered credentials in professional tax expertise in the UK. Andrew also served as an officer of the taxes committee of the International Bar Association for several years. Andrew has written articles in a variety of publications, including Taxation, the Tax Journal, and PLC magazine, and speak regularly at international conferences on tax matters.

Clare Stirzaker

Clare is a Partner in a Private Client & Tax department. She specialises in succession planning and related legal and tax matters for multi-generational families and their family offices. She works alongside some of the world’s leading private businesses and focuses on helping individuals develop their succession planning strategy and designing bespoke asset holding and wealth management structures including PTCs, limited partnership structures and foundations. Clare has particular experience advising families on implementing family and corporate governance frameworks to support successful wealth transition. She also supports clients in developing their philanthropic strategy to enable greater and more effective wealth distribution.

Colin Young

Colin is a Partner in the Litigation team. Colin acts on a wide range of property and commercial litigation matters. He has particular experience in property litigation matters for landlords, tenants, freeholders and developers. This includes strategic property management advice, breaches of covenant, rent recovery, contentious rent review, dilapidations, contentious assignments and alterations, lease renewals, both contested (especially to free up sites for development) and uncontested, trespass, tenant insolvency, and forfeiture/surrender of leases. Other areas of work include commercial disputes and licensing.

Edward Allan

Edward acts predominately for high net worth families and individuals on a range of acquisitions and disposals of high value residential property. He also advises both landlords and tenants in respect of statutory lease extensions in some of the most desirable parts of London. He has experience in all aspects of residential property work. He focuses in particular on the higher end of the London and country property markets and regularly assists individuals who are purchasing, selling, mortgaging or letting high value homes, investment properties or country estates. He works hand in hand with our private client and corporate teams in structuring transactions in a tax efficient manner.

Eleanor Sepanski

Eleanor is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. Eleanor deals with all aspects of onshore UK tax, private client and trust work and her clients include large family businesses. She advises on offshore structures and international tax and estate planning, with a particular interest in the USA. Eleanor is a member of the firm's arts team and advises on the full spectrum of art matters for private clients. She also specialises in charity law, dealing in particular with governance issues, philanthropy and CSR planning for high net worth individuals and companies.

Emily Brand

Emily is the Head of Family and specialises in family law with particular expertise in complex financial proceedings, often with an international dimension. Emily's experience ranges from drafting pre and post nuptial agreements to litigating on children disputes in the High Court. Emily frequently advises on cases involving family businesses or private equity assets. She is widely respected for her combination of compassion for her clients’ unique circumstances, and her astute ability for intelligent problem-solving.

Geoffrey Todd

Geoffrey is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. He gives UK and international tax and estate planning advice to individuals, trustees and family businesses. He advises on tax planning strategies including the use of trusts and other structures, residence and domicile issues and cross-border estate planning, particularly between the US and the UK. He also deals with succession planning, including the protection of wealth against divorce, and charity law. Geoffrey acts for clients whose underlying businesses range from property and financial investment to wine-making and philanthropy.

Graham Winkley

Graham is a Partner in the Property team. He has a wide experience in all aspects of residential and commercial property including acting for landed estates, property trading companies and developers. Graham’s work focuses on high-value acquisitions and disposals of residential and commercial property, leasehold enfranchisement and ongoing management of mixed use buildings.

Harriet Errington

Harriet is a Partner in the Family team. She is an accomplished family law partner, experienced litigator and skilled negotiator. She has been advising clients at Boodle Hatfield for over a decade, steering them sensitively and assuredly through complex personal matters. Harriet’s practice covers all aspects of family law, including divorce and the financial consequences of relationship breakdown, pre- and post-nuptial agreements, children disputes and cohabitation claims. Harriet has particular expertise in international cases, specialising in complex financial disputes involving high net worth individuals. Harriet has acted for some of the wealthiest and high profile families in the Middle East and Europe. Harriet also specialises in complex international private children law matters including international leave to remove and child abduction cases. These cases can be highly emotional, but Harriet guides her clients through them sensitively and assuredly.

Hayden Bailey

Hayden is the Head of the Private Client and Tax team at Boodle Hatfield. He has an extensive range of private client and tax planning experience and advises entrepreneurs, family business owners and city executives on their UK capital taxation strategy, wills, trusts, life assurance based products, partnerships, shareholder issues and corporate governance. Hayden also advises non-UK domiciliaries on their UK taxation exposure and asset holding structures and Family Office arrangements.

James Ferguson

James is a Partner in the Family team and specialises in family law dealing with all matters arising from the breakdown of a marriage/relationship. His legal specialisations include: separation and divorce, financial proceedings, children, and pre-marital pre-civil partnership and separation agreements.

Jonathan Hyndman

Jonathan is a Partner in the Property team, specialising in real estate debt finance. He advises lenders, financial institutions, sponsors, servicers and corporate borrowers on all forms of real estate debt finance including senior and mezzanine loan origination, loan restructuring and loan workout. Jonathan has a particular focus on real estate development finance where he combines his construction law and finance expertise to provide commercial solutions for his clients. He acts for property developers and funders on a wide variety of real estate development projects, advising on development agreements and joint ventures, acquisition and development finance documents and the preparation and negotiation of construction documents.

Katie O'Callaghan

Katie is a Partner in the Family team. She advises clients on all aspects of family law, with a particular emphasis on high net worth financial remedy proceedings on divorce. A high proportion of her workload involves complex wealth structures both in the UK and abroad. She often acts for clients where the majority of the wealth is tied up in a family business which raises issues not only about the value of the company but also the ways in which funds can be extracted from it to buy out one spouse’s interest. She has a varied client base with backgrounds in private equity, sport, retail and technology. Katie has a particular interest in the preparation and negotiation of pre- and post-nuptial agreements in order to seek to protect certain assets in the event of a divorce.  Katie is also a qualified mediator and is trained to help clients focus on what really matters to them and their family and to help clients to discuss and agree the best arrangements for the future.

Kellie Jones

Kellie is a Partner in the Litigation team. Her practice encompasses a wide range of commercial and property litigation. Kellie has substantial experience in dealing with all aspects of property litigation, including enforcing freehold restrictive covenants, party wall claims, enfranchisement litigation and claims under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. Kellie acts for estates, freeholders, landlords, tenants and individuals. Kellie also advises on all landlord and tenant matters in commercial, residential and mixed use buildings, including advising on business lease renewals, both contested and uncontested, service charge issues and breaches of covenant including dilapidations, repair, alterations, assignment and remedies, including forfeiture. Kellie also has experience in dealing with general commercial disputes, with a particular focus on partnership disputes, high value contractual claims, misrepresentation and enforcement. Kellie acts for international clients and high net worth individuals. Kellie has experience of acting for clients in proceedings in the First Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber), Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber), County Courts, High Court, Commercial Court and Court of Appeal.

Kyra Motley

Kyra is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. She specialises in multi-jurisdictional wealth planning, international tax and trusts, succession planning and family governance for high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. She has extensive experience in advising on wealth preservation and tax efficient structures in an international context and is well recognised for advising clients in relation to complex cross-border tax and estate planning. Kyra does a lot of work with the Middle East and is recognised as a leader in the field of wealth planning involving Sharia succession, particularly in an international context.

Laurence Morgan

Laurence is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. He specialises in advising individuals and families in the UK and abroad on their tax and estate planning and providing related advice to trustees and other private client service providers. He regularly advises on complex cross-border tax and succession planning, as well as pre-arrival planning for non-UK domiciliaries coming to the UK. This often involves working with advisors in other jurisdictions to provide coordinated advice. A significant number of Laurence’s clients have connections with the US or Spain. Laurence speaks fluent Spanish and before becoming a Partner spent time on secondment with the tax group of a leading Spanish law firm.

Mark Lindley

Mark is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. He specialises in handling disputes in the field of wills, trusts, tax-planning and the administration of estates. These include disputes relating to multi-million pound estates, trust funds for HNW beneficiaries, trustees and trust companies, both onshore and offshore, and in the Court of Protection. Mark also deals with a range of non-contentious private client work including wills, trusts, the administration of estates, powers of attorney / deputyships and long term tax-planning and succession structures.

Matthew Bennett

Matthew is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax department. He advises both UK and overseas resident individuals and families on the management of their legal, personal and tax affairs, and on the transfer of wealth down the generations. Much of his work includes advising on trusts and other asset holding structures. His client base ranges from entrepreneurs and company directors, to authors and artists. He also advises UK and overseas trustees and other fiduciaries on their duties and responsibilities and particular aspects of trust law. He acts as executor and as trustee for his clients and for a number of charitable trusts.

Natasha Hassall

Natasha is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. Natasha advises on long term estate planning, handling both onshore and offshore trusts, tax planning and wills. She is very experienced in dealing with large landed estates, family offices and, in particular, heritage property issues. She undertakes a great deal of work involving complicated trusts; asset protection and devolution; and capital tax planning and also looks after several large families based outside the UK.

Nicola Bushby

Nicola is a Partner in the firm's Private Wealth Disputes team. She specialises in trust and estate litigation for high and ultra-high net worth individuals and families, often involving complex capacity issues. Nicola has particular expertise in claims for breach of trust, inter-family disputes in relation to the administration of estates and constructive trusts, Will disputes and setting aside transactions by reason of mental incapacity and undue influence. Her cases regularly involve multiple jurisdictions and recovering money held offshore. She has enormous strength across the whole spectrum of Court of Protection work, with particular emphasis on contentious financial applications concerning the estates and businesses of those who may have lost capacity to manage them, financial abuse, gift and statutory Will disputes and the removal of attorneys and deputies. She is particularly skilful and experienced at dealing with the dynamics of family disputes and adept at untangling the most difficult and challenging of cases.

Nigel Stone

Nigel is a Partner in the Corporate and Commercial team. His practice areas are UK and cross border M&A, investment funds, fund management, corporate structuring, debt finance, joint ventures and commercial contracts.

Rahul Thakrar

Rahul is a Partner in the Corporate and Commercial team. He advises entrepreneurs and businesses on a variety of corporate matters including equity raises, joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions as well as assisting clients with day to day commercial agreements. Rahul also advises both borrowers and lenders on debt and mezzanine finance transactions and has significant experience in advising investment funds and fund managers on structuring and regulatory issues. Uniquely for a lawyer, Rahul has undertaken all of his Chartered Financial Analyst examinations (a qualification typically achieved only by senior bankers) and therefore regularly assists clients with negotiating the key commercial terms of a transaction as well as then finding a structure which provides the necessary commercial outcomes.

Rajeev Joshi

Rajeev is a Partner in the Property team. He has extensive experience of real estate investment, development and finance work for institutional investors, foreign investors, asset managers, financial institutions, family offices and entrepreneurial property companies. He acts regularly for lenders and borrowers on real estate secured lending transactions as well as acquiring and disposing of high value portfolios of investment properties as well as providing advice to developers on large scale developments. Rajeev also has particular experience in the hotel sector where he acts on the acquisition, development, leasing and financing of hotels. He also acts for entrepreneurial developers on residential development schemes.

Reem Al-Jumaily

Reem is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. Reem is a fluent Arabic speaking Partner specialising in the sale and purchase of UK residential property, including prime central London and large London development projects. Reem has over ten years’ experience handling client property transactions and advises both high net worth individuals and companies (offshore and domestic). She also has vast experience in secured lending and advising private banks in property financing transactions. As an Arabic speaker, Reem has a particular focus and interest in the Middle East, with significant experience advising many clients from the region.

Richard Beavan

Richard is Head of Corporate and Commercial at Boodle Hatfield and has been a corporate lawyer since 1998. He has extensive experience of mergers and acquisitions (public and private), venture capital and private equity; public company listings and fundraisings, compliance under the listing rules and AIM rules; joint ventures; acquisition finance; corporate and share capital reorganisations; investment funds; directors' duties; corporate governance; and commercial contracts.

Salpy Kouyoumjian

Salpy is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. Salpy has a  strong international client base and specialises in providing international tax and structuring advice to ultra high net worth entrepreneurs (and the trustees and financial institutions who service them) in relation to their multi-jurisdictional private and business assets. She has extensive expertise in advising clients on international and cross border taxation, long-term asset protection/risk management and family/business governance. Salpy has considerable experience in designing and establishing bespoke international asset-holding and wealth management structures including private trust companies, limited partnerships, family offices, pooled investment vehicles and investment management/advisory structures. Salpy also has extensive expertise in Sharia compliant wealth structuring. Salpy is fluent in Arabic, French and Armenian.

Saskia Arthur

Saskia is a Partner in the Property team. Saskia has a diverse client base and wide ranging practice focusing on the residential, rural and landed estates sectors and advising on all areas of property law that impact on high net worth individuals, large land owners and estates. She leads the firm's residential practice and acts for both domestic and foreign nationals and works closely with our tax, private client and corporate teams on the often complex arrangements surrounding such transactions. With a number of urban and country estate clients, along with property investors and private clients, she acts on all major property matters including sales and purchases of high value residential property, landed estates and commercial farming operations, overage arrangements, landlord and tenant issues (whether residential, commercial or agricultural), easements, first registrations, sporting and telecommunications, together with the ongoing day to day management advice on a myriad of issues. She regularly acts on acquisitions and purchases of the most expensive land, farms and residential properties and estates in England.

Shaima Jillood

Shaima is a Residential Property Partner at Boodle Hatfield. She is experienced in all aspects of residential property including acquisitions, disposals and financing of UK property. Shaima is fluent in Arabic and has a strong Middle Eastern client base. She acts for high net worth individuals and companies along with Private and Islamic banks.

Simon Fitzpatrick

Partner

Simon Kerrigan

Simon is a Partner in our Property department, who deals with all aspects of residential property work, in particular landlord and tenant matters. He has detailed knowledge and experience in leasehold enfranchisement cases, both for landlords (including large landed estates both in and outside London) and tenants. He also deals with acquisitions and disposals for high-net-worth individuals.

Simon Rylatt

Simon is a Partner in the Private Client and Tax team. Simon deals with a wide range of UK and international tax and estate planning matters for individuals, family businesses and trusts, and handles high value, contentious trust and estate disputes for both onshore and offshore clients. He also advises on long term planning strategies for wealthy families and their businesses including wealth protection structures, governance, divorce issues, pre-nuptial agreements and generational succession planning.

Simon Gorham

Simon is the Head of Employment and advises on the full range of employment law issues, both contentious and non-contentious, often across European and international jurisdictions.

Zoe Jacob

Zoe is a Partner in the Private Client & Tax team, and heads the firm's UK immigration team. She is an immigration expert with over a decade of experience advising both individuals and businesses in all areas of UK immigration, nationality and asylum law. She is known for her client-centric approach and her ability to find innovative, commercially viable solutions in unusual circumstances. She represents UHNW and HNW individuals who come to her for her track record of exceptional client service, and tangible results, when advising on complex matters, particularly those which fall outside the Immigration Rules. She has extensive experience working with individuals relocating to the UK for the purposes of investment or establishment of a UK entity. Zoe also works seamlessly with businesses applying for sponsor licences and Skilled Worker visas, and helps these clients navigate the ever-changing sponsor licence compliance regime. Zoe has significant experience working with the Home Office to achieve the best possible outcomes for her clients. Her previous experience acting as independent counsel for the Home Office in a range of a appeals in the Immigration Tribunal gives her a unique insight into the Home Office decision making process.