Ashtons Legal

Private Wealth Disputes

Partner

Joanna qualified as a Chartered Legal Executive in 2006 having originally trained with the firm as a general dispute resolution lawyer; re-joining in January 2019 and became a Partner in April 2024. She has worked in both private practice and in-house, where she was the sole disputes practitioner working on a broad litigation caseload.

Over the last few years, Joanna has relished developing a practice which specialises in contentious probate, court of protection and trust matters and is a member of ACTAPS (Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists). She has experience in advising beneficiaries, executors, attorneys and trustees in relation to bringing and defending:

claims for reasonable financial provision from an estate claims relating to the validity of wills and trust documents rectification claims removal of executors and trustees mental capacity matters breach of trust claims proprietary estoppel claims contentious Court of Protection matters.

Prominent cases include:

Hudson v Hathway - High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Hewson v Wells & Ors - Royal Courts of Justice

Joanna prides herself on the empathy and the rapport she has with clients, has a proven track record of resolving complex trust and probate disputes, and recognises the need for flexibility in the funding of these claims, where appropriate (alternative funding arrangements are considered by the firm on a case by case basis). She enjoys working as part of a team to ensure that clients’ needs are met, at the right level, with proportionality at the forefront of all that she does.

Joanna provides timely and cost effective advice to her clients, looking for proactive solutions to their sensitive needs and works closely internally with our non-contentious lifetime planning and court of protection teams and externally with Counsel. This niche area of work can be very time consuming and emotionally difficult for our clients, so Joanna and the team work alongside them to guide them through the process as efficiently and easily as we can. We are committed to the constructive resolution of disputes by mediation or negotiation wherever possible, only resorting to the courts where absolutely appropriate.

Joanna is a dementia friend.