Notable trust, probate and will disputes work

• Cross border succession. Acting in a large multi-million pound cross-border succession dispute with assets straddled across many jurisdictions and a dispute with regards to the applicable law to apply and the devolution of the estate.
  
  
• Domicile Disputes: Acting for the long term partner of a deceased, who had links to France, Greece and the UK. The deceased left a will, but it made no provision for his partner. Our client sought reasonable financial provision from the deceased’s substantial estate. As part of that claim, our client argued that the deceased had a permanent intention to remain in the UK. The matter settled at mediation.
  
  
• Family Office: Acting in a team to advise on an estate involving a business estimated to be worth approximately £300million. Applying for an urgent grant of representation to facilitate control of the company and mitigate the risk of disputes with other shareholders.
  
  
• Stevanovic v Knyvett [2019] EWHC 381 (Fam). We successfully defended a claim by a former partner of the deceased for financial provision from his multi-million pound estate. We successfully opposed an application for interim provision in the first reported case to consider the merits requirements.
  
  
• Ubbi & Anori (Minors) v Ubbi [2018] EWHC 1396 (Ch). We successfully defended a claim brought by the two minor children of the deceased. The matter was determined at trial and successfully reduced the quantum of the claim from £2 million to £386,290. This is one of the few (if not only) judgments on such a claim by minor children.
  
  
• Acting in a cross border estate concerning US life interest trusts and dependency rights in Alberta and England.
  
  
• Acting for the court appointed administrator of an estate with assets in England and Cyprus.
  
  
• Contentious multi-jurisdictional estate - applications in the administration of a contentious multi-jurisdictional estate with issues regarding residence and domicile and application to the court for Benjamin orders.
  
  
• Resolving a potential claim pursuant to the Inheritance (provision for Family and Dependants)Act 1975 where there was a dispute about domicile and the validity of a civil partnership in the relevant jurisdictions.
  
  
• Will Challenges: Acting in a will dispute in circumstances where the Testator had made a will several years following a diagnosis of dementia. Our client’s will challenge focused on issues of testamentary capacity and knowledge and approval. A settlement was negotiated through correspondence.
  
  
• Will Constructions and Rectification: Acting for the executors and trustees in a claim for construction and/or rectification of the deceased's will. An error found after death was found to have implications for the extent of the class of discretionary beneficiaries. The matter was determined at trial.
  
  
• Property Trust: K v N [2021] unreported. We successfully claimed a declaration that our client was the 100% beneficial ownership of a disputed property. We were able to secure the recovery of our client’s costs on the indemnity basis.
  
  
• Acting for the “wife” (in a bigamous marriage) as well as the step-daughters of the deceased in a dispute concerning the ownership of assets in multiple jurisdictions. We advised on the best jurisdiction in which to proceed and acted as lead lawyers when working with our colleagues in 3 other jurisdictions.
  
  
• Advising an administrator of an estate (as appointed by the Norwegian Court) in his application to be replaced in circumstances where funds misappropriated from the deceased’s business had been transferred to England.

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