Jobs
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.
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia.[9] The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains boundaries close to its medieval ones.[note 1][10] Since the 19th century,[11] "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire,[12] which largely comprises Greater London,[13] governed by the Greater London Authority.[note 2][14] The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries held the national government and parliament.
London, as one of the world's global cities,[15] exerts strong influence on its arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, health care, media, tourism, and communications,[16] and therefore has sometimes been called the capital of the world.[17][18][19] Its GDP (€801.66 billion in 2017) makes it the biggest urban economy in Europe,[20] and it is one of the major financial centres in the world. In 2019 it had the second-highest number of ultra high-net-worth individuals in Europe after Paris[21] and the second-highest number of billionaires of any city in Europe after Moscow.[22] With Europe's largest concentration of higher education institutions,[23] it includes Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London.[24] The city is home to the most 5-star hotels of any city in the world.[25] In 2012, London became the first city to host three Summer Olympic Games.[26]
London's diverse cultures mean over 300 languages are spoken.[27] The mid-2018 population of Greater London of about 9 million[5] made it Europe's third-most populous city.[28] It accounts for 13.4 per cent of the UK population.[29] Greater London Built-up Area is the fourth-most populous in Europe, after Istanbul, Moscow and Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.[30][31] The London metropolitan area is the third-most populous in Europe after Istanbul's and Moscow's, with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016.[note 3][4][32]
London has four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the combined Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and also the historic settlement in Greenwich, where the Royal Observatory, Greenwich defines the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time.[33] Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Trafalgar Square. It has numerous museums, galleries, libraries and sporting venues, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres.[34] The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world.
