Alison leads the contentious trust and estate team, representing a range of clients including private individuals, trustees, executors and beneficiaries.  

Alison has significant and wide-ranging experience advising on succession, inheritance and trust issues, often involving international issues and including advice on a variety of issues such as the validity and construction of wills and trust deeds, the removal of fiduciaries, breach of trust claims, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 and succession disputes. 

Alison works closely with colleagues in the private client, family and corporate teams when advising on issues that arise that may affect an individual or a family’s long term personal and business interests. This may involve the impact of a pre-nuptial agreement, stress testing trust structures or advising on family wealth structuring so as to avoid a dispute.

She is ranked in Private Client Global Elite and regularly acts in contentious administrations via the Russell- Cooke Trust Company where the trust company is appointed as independent administrator in circumstances involving beneficiary litigation or family disharmony.

With experience in mediation as well as litigation, Alison is known to try and resolve disputes as quickly and cost efficiently wherever possible, but is also a tenacious litigator where she needs to be.

• Enforcement of cross-border ancillary relief debt: complex international estate dispute involving attempts to enforce a substantial unpaid financial award after death, requiring strategic action across trusts, corporate structures and overseas assets. 
• Dispute over competing Italian and English Wills: acting  for a young beneficiary in a cross border inheritance dispute involving contradictory positions on domicile, Italian forced heirship rights, the validity of successive Italian and English wills and the rights to administer.
• Saudi–UK succession and property administration: advising a member of a prominent family in a complex succession matter requiring reconciliation of Saudi and English legal frameworks, historic property issues and competing succession certificates.
• Contentious administration of high profile corporate estate: managing the contentious administration of a high value estate involving issues such as the disputed transfer of company shares and properties along with other lifetime transactions.  To also include a will challenge and construction claim, legacy property issues and management issues to include possession isuest, planning potential and overage rights and a complex claim for BPR in an unusual context.
• Removal of executor in cross border estate: representing a residuary beneficiary in removing a hostile executor in a UK–US–Swiss estate, involving devastavit claims, tax issues and a dispute concerning a Cayman Protector.
• Brazil–UK estate involving forced heirship rights: advising an interim administrator in a disputed estate concerning the operation and impact of Brazilian forced heirship rules, uncertain share transfers and self drafted documents which serve to create complex valuation and beneficial ownership issues.
• Copyright and trust rights dispute with national media: representing the trustees of a trust set up by a topical historical figure. 
• Asserting ownership of intellectual property rights against a national newspaper, requiring complex analysis of succession of rights through multiple historic estates.
• Trust construction and spousal claim in UK–Jersey estate: advising executors and trustees on a spousal claim involving disputed trust validity, construction of self drafted deeds, competing ownership claims over land, and tax issues including BPR.
• Proprietary estoppel claim over family business assets: representing a son claiming a promised share of family businesses and properties where late life asset transfers and a new will favoured a sibling.
• Urgent administration dispute with executor misconduct: applying for emergency protective probate measures where an executor/beneficiary improperly occupied charged property and obstructed proceedings, requiring judicial intervention and interim administration.
• Blended family trust dispute over capital and income: advising trustees in contested trusts involving high value London real estate, addressing disputes over management decisions, allocation of expenses and threatened trustee removal claims.
• Multi issue estate litigation involving lifetime transactions: representing a son in litigation involving will validity, misconduct by attorneys, disputed lifetime asset transfers, executor removal, and complex proprietary estoppel elements.
• Contentious administration involving partnership and property rights: supporting an independent administrator handling disputes involving mental capacity, undue influence, partnership assets, historic accounts and beneficial ownership across two linked estates. 
• Cross-border succession dispute: acting in a complex dispute as to the law that will govern the succession to an estate straddling several common law and civil law jurisdictions (Belgium, BVI, England and others).
• Scherbakov v Morina & others BVIHC 134 of 2018 
  Stevanovic v Knyvett [2019] 214 (Fam) [2019] EWHC 381 (Fam): successfully defending a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 and opposing an application for interim maintenance under section 5 of the Act as well as an application for relief from sanctions. This is the first reported case to consider the merits requirements of an application for interim maintenance.
• Cross-border domicile dispute:  acting for a civil partner in a dispute concerning allegations of rights of civil law forced heirship, domicile (England, Israel, Turkey) and the impact of an English Civil Partnership.
• Forfeiture: advising on the likelihood of forfeiting an inheritance, arising in the context of a French criminal prosecution
• Contentious multi-jurisdictional estate (England/Cyprus): advising in the administration of a contentious multi-jurisdictional estate with issues regarding residence, domicile and an application to the court for a blessing order.
• Canadian estate: acting for the widow in a valuable cross border succession and administration dispute straddling England, Canada and the US.
• Cohabitees and beneficial interests: acted for the administrator of an estate in the Court of Appeal case Graham-York v York [2015] EWCA Civ 72 involving disputed family property interests and a succession dispute.

• University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg)
• College of Law London

• Member of ACTAPS (Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists)

• Member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners)

• General Officer and Board member of National Association of Independent Administrators