A look at the most read stories on eprivateclient this week....
Monday
Mishcon de Reya hired Marianne Kafena and Idina Glyn as partners in its London office. Ms Kafena advises high net worth families, family offices and private businesses based in the Middle East and brings overs 20 years' experience to the role. She has joined from Harbottle & Lewis where she was a partner from 2020. Prior to this, Ms Kafena was a partner at Farrer & Co for six years. Ms Glyn advises on transactional and advisory property matters alongside onshore tax, trust, succession, charity, super prime central London property matters and art law. She has joined from Forsters where she was a senior associate.
With an increasing number of women managing the family wealth or founding businesses, it’s vital to consciously evaluate the support required to cater for clients' needs holistically, as wealth is created, preserved and transitioned to the next generation, Gilly Kennedy-Smith, a partner at Mourant, wrote. According to Boston Consulting Group, women now control over a third of the world's wealth. This echoes our experience at Mourant in recent years, where our private wealth team have seen an increase in ultra-high net worth (UHNW) women becoming involved in the decision-making around managing the family wealth, including the transfer of wealth to the next generation.
Tuesday
Mishcon de Reya appointed Kate Clark, a partner in its family team, as head of family in Mishcon Private, effective from the start of 2024. Ms Clark joined the firm in 2014 and became a partner in 2021. She will be supported in her role by Claire Yorke, who has become a finance partner for the team. A specialist in high net worth divorces and in all aspects of family law, Ms Clark has a particular emphasis on high value financial disputes. Her work often involving complex offshore structures, trusts, and business interests. Ms Clark has a particular interest in high conflict children cases and is the head of the firm's high conflict complex children law group. She is also experienced in advising on pre- and post-marital agreements as well as cohabitation agreements.
Offshore law firm Collas Crill appointed Gareth Bell as managing partner of its Guernsey office. Mr Bell joined Collas Crill in 2005 and became a partner at the firm five years later. He is a litigation lawyer, specialising in trust, company, insolvency, professional negligence and other financial services disputes. A qualified Guernsey Advocate, Mr Bell heads up the firm's insolvency and corporate disputes team on the island.
Wednesday
Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO strengthened its South East team with the appointment of Lucy Saunders. Ms Saunders joined BDO's private client tax team as a partner from Blick Rothenburg. She has 20 years’ experience, in particular in advising international high net worth individuals (HNWIs) on complex tax matters including matrimonial, succession, inheritance, trust and company areas. At BDO, Ms Saunders will help to strengthen the firm’s private client tax team both regionally and nationally. Recognised as an eprivateclient Top 35 under 35 in 2013, she will work with HNWIs, families and their structures – both in the UK and internationally.
International law firm Withers grew its dispute resolution practice in Asia with the addition of special counsel Gary Leung and the promotion of Alex Ye to special counsel. Mr Leung joined Withers' Hong Kong litigation and arbitration team from Kobre & Kim. He is a solicitor advocate specialising in complex commercial, financial and insolvency litigation, domestic/international arbitration and contentious regulatory matters. Mr Ye has been promoted to special counsel in the Hong Kong office. Mr Ye specialises in international arbitration, with both civil and common law experience, having qualified in Hong Kong, England & Wales and the PRC.
Thursday
Boston Multi Family Office completed the acquisition of the fiduciary business from Turnstone (Isle of Man) Limited. The move will see Roelf Odendaal, the co-founder of Turnstone (Isle of Man), and his fiduciary team and clients join Boston. It is the third acquisition by Boston since the management buyout in October 2019 by chief executive Katherine Ellis and Alex McNee, who has since moved into the role of group director – mergers & acquisitions, and follows the purchase of IQE Limited in 2020 and Fedelta Trust Limited in early 2023.
UK law firm Kingsley Napley appointed Sital Fontenelle as head of its family & divorce team with effect from 1 March 2024. A partner with the firm since 2018, Ms Fontenelle specialises in the complex financial aspects of a divorce, negotiating and drafting of nuptial agreements as well as private children law cases. She typically acts for high net worth individuals, often on cases involving an international dimension, offshore trusts, family businesses, inherited wealth or asset tracing. She is also highly experienced in complex children cases.
Friday
Elon Musk may not be interested in diversity, equality and inclusion, but that does not mean others are not, Katie Royals wrote. His statement that “DEI [diversity, equality and inclusion] must DIE” garnered a lot of attention and sparked debate about whether corporations were in agreement and would be less interested in equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I). In the UK wealth management sector at least, this does not seem to be the case. There is still much to be done, but firms appear to want to keep doing this work.
International law firm Charles Russell Speechlys has added three partners to its transactional teams. James Walton joined as a partner within the firm’s banking and finance team. He joined Charles Russell Speechlys from Edwin Coe and will be based in the firm’s London office. At the same time the firm has added two partners to its corporate team in London with the arrival of merger and acquisition (M&A) specialists Giles Dennison and Alexis Karim. [Read more]