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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.

​Mountsorrel is a village in Leicestershire on the River Soar, just south of Loughborough with a population in 2001 of 6,662 inhabitants,[1][2] increasing to 8,223 at the 2011 census.[3]

The village is in the borough ofCharnwood, surrounding a steep hill, once crowned by a castle, and is bordered to the east by theRiver Soar.

The village is renowned for theButtercrossMarket in the village centre as well as itsgranitequarry, the largest in Europe. TheLeicesterarm of theGrand Union Canalruns through Mountsorrel.

The civil parish meets with Rothley to the south, and some houses are actually in Rothley parish near the southern A6 junction. To the west of the parish is a nature reserve. North of here, theLeicestershire Roundpasses east–west through the north of the village. The parish boundary meets Quorndon where it first meets the quarry near Buddon Wood. North of there, it crosses the former A6, 500 metres (1,600 ft) towards Quorn from the roundabout for the A6 roundabout. Close to the bypass, theRiver Soarbecomes the parish boundary and south of the A6 northern junction it meetsSilebyat the point where it crosses the A6 bypass. Five hundred metres (one thousand six hundred feet) south of there, the boundary leaves the river to the west, with the river becoming the Sileby-Rothley boundary.

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