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.
Shropshire (/ˈʃrɒpʃər, -ʃɪər/; historically Salop[3] and abbreviated Shrops) is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the south-east, Herefordshire to the south, and the Welsh counties of Wrexham and Powys to the west. The largest settlement is Telford, and Shrewsbury is the county town.
The county has an area of 3,487 square kilometres (1,346 sq mi) and a population of 498,073. Telford (155,570), in the east of the county, and Shrewsbury (76,782), in the centre, are the only large towns. Shropshire is otherwise rural and characterised by market towns such as Oswestry (15,613), Bridgnorth (12,212), and Newport (11,387). The county contains two districts, Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin, which are both unitary areas.
Shropshire is generally flat in the north and hilly in the south, where the Shropshire Hills AONB covers about a quarter of the county, including The Wrekin, Clee Hills, Stiperstones, Long Mynd, and Wenlock Edge.[4][5] Part of the Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve, which extends into Wales, occupies the low-lying north west of the county.[6] The River Severn, Great Britain's longest river, runs through the county in a wide, flat valley before exiting into Worcestershire south of Bridgnorth. The village of Edgmond, near Newport, is the location of the lowest recorded temperature (in terms of weather) in England and Wales.[7]
There is evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age human occupation in Shropshire, including the Shropshire bulla pendant. The hillfort at Old Oswestry dates from the Iron Age, and the remains of the city of Viroconium Cornoviorum date from the Roman period.[8][9] During the Anglo-Saxon era the area was part of Mercia. During the High Middle Ages the county was part of the Welsh Marches, the border region between Wales and England; from 1472 to 1689 Ludlow was the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches, which administered justice in Wales and Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.[10] During the English Civil War Shropshire was Royalist, and Charles II fled through the county — famously hiding in an oak tree — after his final defeat at the Battle of Worcester.[11] The area around Coalbrookdale is regarded as one of the birthplaces of the Industrial Revolution and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[12][13]