Catherine Naylor heads the practice in London at Gowling WLG. Naylor is adept at handling multi-jurisdictional cases. The practice draws on the expertise of the firm’s other private wealth practitioners in Singapore and Canada to handle an array of cases with a cross-border dimension. It focuses on all aspects of trust litigation and most of its clients are internationally based. James Sidwell has extensive experience in contentious trusts cases, and Andrew Witts is another key practitioner.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Very client-focused and highly-skilled private client team with a great reputation.’

  • ‘Catherine Naylor is an outstanding lawyer; she is a calm, clever, and sophisticated thinker. Emily Till is a brilliant associate and one of the smartest I have come across.’

  • 'We deal primarily with the London office and find them to be excellent at understanding the complexities of offshore and cross-border litigation.'

  • 'Catherine Naylor rises to every challenge and is an excellent litigator. James Sidwell is a seasoned litigator who has outstanding tactical sense and a cerebral approach to litigation.'
  • 'Gowling have a team of excellent commercial litigators who can bring all that expertise and experience to bear on big trusts litigation.'
  • 'Catherine Naylor is a standout partner and exceptional litigator with verve and charisma.'

Key clients

  • TMF Group (Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited)
  • Joanna Lemos
  • Dan Finch
  • Adam Smith
  • DCI Advisors Limited

Work highlights

  • Defending Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited, a subsidiary of TMF Group, and one of its former employees, who was a director of English asset-holding companies that formed part of one of the Z Trusts, successfully in proceedings brought by the asset-holding companies.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Catherine Naylor

Other key lawyers

James Sidwell, Emily Till, Andrew Witts