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UK Private Client Law

​Private client lawyers work with individuals and families, providing legal advice on a variety of matters such as investments, taxation, estate management, wills and testamentary issues. Private clients are usually very rich and high net worth individuals or landowners who hold massive amounts of properties and other assets. Private client lawyers also tend to deal with charities too. These might be small, not-for-profit associations or fully-fledged organisations that are run like a business and have immense budgets.

The main objective of a private client lawyer is to provide advice which will help preserve, build and maintain wealth and establish trusts. They will also offer prudent guidance on matters, such as inheritance tax and capital gains tax.

Why is it important? What does it involve?

The workload of a typical private client lawyer might be comprised of drafting wills, executing the terms of the will in the instance of death, and the subsequent disbursement of properties and assets. You will also help clients to look after and grow their wealth, locally or internationally. As such, private client lawyers will also be required to apply tax law in many cases. Most firms will have separate departments where private client and charity work is handled.

Private client lawyers working for charitable bodies will provide legal services for registration, restructuring, creating charters or trust deeds, compliance with statutory and local authorities and regular management and disbursement of funds, which have been received or earned for charitable endeavours. Other activities will include providing investment advice, helping to set up offshore trusts, drafting contracts and business proposals and handling sponsorships.

Private client practice is an ever-burgeoning field. Immense advances in several emerging markets have created a fresh breed of millionaires and billionaires across the globe. Consequently, lawyers in this area have their hands full with plenty of work, and there’s more to come in the future. There is also an increasing demand for lawyers specialising in private client and charity practice.

Break it down for me a little bit!

Private client lawyers must have excellent people management skills. They will need to handle communications, discussions and negotiations articulately and efficiently. A comprehensive knowledge of the law and commercial matters when dealing with taxation, inheritance, investments and trusts is essential.

They must have a particular aptitude for wading through tons of rules and regulations and be able to structure matters in a manner that is most beneficial to their client; saving on costs, whilst still being compliant with the law.

It’s advantageous for private client lawyers to have a good understanding of the foreign markets where clients hold their assets and funds. They may also need to interact and coordinate with people abroad and deal with organisations that operate offshore or in overseas tax havens.

These careers could involve some degree of international travel. However, there will also be long hours and, as always, an ungodly amount of documentation to get through.

​Great Yarmouth, often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort and minster town in Norfolk, England, straddling the River Yare, some 20 miles (30 km) east of Norwich.[2] A population of 38,693 in the 2011 Census made it Norfolk's third most populous place. Its fishing industry, mainly for herring, fell steeply after the mid-20th century and has all but vanished.[3] North Sea oil from the 1960s brought an oil-rig supply industry that now services offshore natural gas rigs. More recent offshore wind power and other renewable energy have created further support services. Yarmouth has been a seaside resort since 1760 and a gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the North Sea. Tourism was boosted when a railway opened in 1844, which gave visitors easier, cheaper access and triggered some settlement. Wellington Pier opened in 1854 and Britannia Pier in 1858. Through the 20th century, Yarmouth was a booming resort, with a promenade, pubs, trams, fish-and-chip shops and theatres, and the Pleasure Beach, the Sea Life Centre, the Hippodrome Circus and the Time and Tide Museum, and a surviving Victorian seaside Winter Garden in cast iron and glass.

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