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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.

​Oxfordshire[a] is a landlocked county in the far west of the government statistical region of South East England. The ceremonial county borders Warwickshire to the north-west, Northamptonshire to the north-east, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, Wiltshire to the south-west and Gloucestershire to the west.

The county has major education and tourist industries, and is noted for concentrations of performance motorsport, car manufacturing and technology companies. The University of Oxford is widely considered one of the leading universities in the world, and is linked to a concentration of local technology and science activities at locations such as the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, while Oxford University Press is the largest firm among a concentration of print and publishing firms.

As well as the city of Oxford, other centres of population are Banbury, Bicester, Kidlington and Chipping Norton to the north of Oxford; Carterton and Witney to the west; Thame and Chinnor to the east; and Abingdon-on-Thames, Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and Henley-on-Thames to the south. All its zones south of the Thames: the Vale of White Horse and parts of South Oxfordshire were within the historic county of Berkshire, including the highest point, the 261-metre (856 ft) White Horse Hill.[5]

Oxfordshire's county flower is the snake's-head fritillary.[6]

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