Edwin Coe LLP

Matthew Barnett

Matthew joined the Private Client team as a Partner in 2019 from Harbottle & Lewis. Matthew acts for high-net-worth individuals on a wide range of estate and succession planning issues. He has extensive experience in advising high-net-worth clients on lifetime gifting and on the use of wills and trusts for the protection of wealth for future generations. He regularly advises trustees on their duties, responsibilities and specific aspects of tax and trust planning. Matthew also advises business owners and entrepreneurs on business succession planning. Matthew has vast experience in probate and estate administration and has dealt with many high value, complex and multi-jurisdictional estates throughout his career. He often advises beneficiaries of estates on succession planning involving post-death variations. Matthew also has particular experience in advising clients on mental capacity issues such as Lasting Powers of Attorney and Deputyship applications to the Court of Protection.

David Goepel

David joined the Private Client department of Edwin Coe as a partner in January 2009 from Withers LLP, where he qualified as a solicitor in 2000. He heads Edwin Coe’s Charity Group and acts for a wide range of private clients, including high-net-worth individuals and trustees and deals with a broad range of private client trust and tax work, both onshore and offshore. Much of David’s time is spent in advising private clients on cross-border issues, including the co-ordination of advice in a number of different jurisdictions.David is particularly interested in the field of charities and philanthropy. He has advised a number of UK charities both national and local on a variety of legal issues, including the powers and duties of charity trustees, tax issues affecting charities and dealings with the Charity Commission and other regulators. David also has extensive experience of advising charitable donors, often in a cross-border context, in establishing and registering family charitable foundations and facilitating cross-border charitable gifts tax efficiently. He also works with colleagues in other practice areas across the firm to meet the full range of legal services which charities require.