Private client
A private client solicitor looks after the affairs of individual clients and trustees, planning and managing all aspects of their personal wealth, including wills and probate, onshore and offshore trusts, and tax matters. Private client lawyers also handle a wide range of charity work, advising on specific legal issues as well as on commercial and property matters that affect charitable organisations and the establishment of charities. Private client work is booming and, increasingly, multi-jurisdictional issues are becoming more important for private client lawyers as a result of acting for clients who are based outside the United Kingdom or who own assets in various countries throughout the world. “It could have been quite a dry degree with all that jurisprudence!” quips Laura Neal, on her decision not to study law at undergraduate level. Opting to read history at the University of Edinburgh instead, Laura discovered that she wanted to be a solicitor through a more hands-on approach: “I had the opportunity to have a few weeks of work experience, both at solicitors’ firms and with two sets of barristers’ chambers. I really enjoyed the discipline of the law but much preferred the analytical to the adversarial side of it.” “The work experience that I had done had been predominantly at private client firms,” she continues, describing what first attracted her to this area of law as she studied for her GDL and LPC at BPP University in London. After completing a vacation scheme at Forsters, Laura was offered a training contract and qualified into the firm’s private client practice in 2015. Since then, she hasn’t looked back, and conducts most of her work “for UK resident domiciled clients, advising on tax and succession issues”. Collaborative approach Laura explains why being a barrister never really appealed to her: “I enjoy public
speaking, but it was a lot to do with the work experience. I found the work that barristers do and their core process very interesting, but I thought I might prefer being part of a team to the solitary nature of barristers’ work. I enjoy the more collaborative approach to problem solving and I thought that becoming a solicitor would suit my personal attributes better.” In fact, this collaborative approach is one of the things that Laura enjoys most about her work as a private client solicitor. “Tax legislation changes so often because it is inherently political, which makes our job more interesting. “Even at the more junior end, you can participate in debates because it’s sometimes the case that the people who are more junior are more familiar with the rules, because they might have learnt them recently or have advised on them with a different partner.” Political risk Such a focus on legislation means that the private client sphere can be particularly academic: “If you’re one of those people at law school who really enjoys doing research then it might be the practice area for you.” The political nature of tax, though, comes with its own challenges. Laura highlights “the risk of changes to legislation which make the UK a less attractive place for international individuals to live, work and invest in” as one issue facing the profession at present. With widespread changes to legislation affecting the taxation of non-domiciled individuals having been implemented in 2017, Laura adds that “it’s a very interesting time in terms of public policy and generally the way that new legislation is affecting our clients”. Client focus Day-to-day, Laura explains, there is “lots of drafting – wills, letters of wishes, lasting powers of attorney, trust instruments and other subsidiary documents – and preparing
For more firms that work in this practice area, please use the “Training contract regional indexes” starting on p205.
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