A rundown of the 10 most read people moves stories to feature on eprivateclient in April 2024...
Amira Shaker-Bortman
1. (04/04/2024) Charles Russell Speechlys hired Amira Shaker-Bortman as a partner in its private client team. Ms Shaker-Bortman will be based in the firm’s London office and has joined Charles Russell Speechlys from McDermott Will & Emery. She has over 15 years’ experience acting for ultra-high net worth individuals, family offices and respective investment holding companies on corporate transactional and advisory matters. Ms Shaker-Bortman's primary area of focus is advising on complex, cross-border investment structuring and wealth management, as well as acting for clients on the acquisition of high-value assets and financial instruments in Europe, the US and the Middle East.
Nicola Pomfret
2. (19/04/2024) London law firm Farrer & Co made four promotions to partner effective from 1 May 2024. The four new partners are William Charrington (dispute resolution), Charmaine Pollock (employment), Laetitia Ransley (charity & community) and 2023 eprivateclient NextGen Leader Nicola Pomfret (private client). Ms Pomfret was previously a senior associate at the firm, having been promoted in 2019. She joined Farrer & Co from Baker McKenzie in 2012 after training and spending over three and a half years there. Ms Pomfret was also named as an eprivateclient Top 35 Under 35 in 2012. She has experience in dealing with complex international trust structures and wealthy families and also leads Farrer & Co’s cross border estate expertise group, supervising and training up juniors in this important area as well as supervising a large number of trainees.
3. (03/04/2024) Accounting and advisory firm Saffery promoted six directors to partner, with effect from 1 April. Based in the Harrogate office, David Bussey is a Chartered accountant and trust and estates practitioner, advising families and owner-managed businesses across Yorkshire and the North East. Based in London, Steven Coelho is a private client tax specialist, advising high and ultra-high net worth clients and their families on their UK tax affairs, estate and succession planning. Anna Hicks is based in London and leads on the firm’s audit and financial reporting technical activity. Andrew Smith is also based in London, providing tax advice to the owners of private companies and shareholders, across personal and corporate tax issues. Based in London, Helen Wilkie is a not-for-profit audit specialist. She has experience of auditing and advising a range of charity and other not-for-profit organisations, from start-up charities to household names.
4. (12/04/2024) Charles Russell Speechlys promoted Ed Birrell and Usman Khan to partner. Mr Birrell, in the UK private wealth disputes department, joined the firm in 2017 from Mourant Ozannes and was named an eprivateclient Top 35 Under 35 in 2020. He advises UK and international clients on domestic and multi-jurisdictional private wealth and trust disputes, specialising in complex trust disputes with an international element or corporate asset base. In addition to his work advising trustees and beneficiaries, he is a member of the pensions litigation team advising on construction and rectification issues as well as claims within pension schemes. Mr Birrell also deals with contentious landed estates matters. Mr Khan, in the firm's UK real estate division, joined the firm in 2016 from Lee Bolton Monier-Williams. He has experience guiding clients through major property acquisitions, developments, and investment sales and regularly advises on property financing, sales at auction and more general landlord and tenant matters.
5. (05/04/2024) Private wealth and real estate law firm Boodle Hatfield promoted three of its employees to partners and four to senior associates. The promotions to partner are Rebecca Foden, Charlie Hewlett and Julie Howard. Ms Foden is part of the litigation department and has experience in dealing with various aspects of commercial litigation, most recently focusing on partnership and shareholder disputes, professional negligence claims, contractual claims, insolvency, defamation and enforcement. Ms Howard is part of the private wealth division at the firm and specialises in tax and estate planning for individuals, families and trusts, with a particular emphasis on international planning. She is also a Chartered tax adviser.
6. (15/04/2024) Ocorian, a global provider of services to financial institutions, asset managers, corporates and high net worth individuals, promoted 178 people across the group. These promotions stretch across all the group’s service lines, including private clients and regulatory and compliance. In the private client division, Andrea Bateman and Annie Norledge have been promoted to senior manager and Lee Smith has been promoted to manager, whilst Craig Brolly, Keisha Burchall, Renu Chummun and Fran Stubbing all received assistant manager promotions.
7. (09/04/2024) Spencer West appointed Gregory Walsh as a partner in its financial services, private wealth and tax teams. Mr Walsh is the founding partner of Spencer West's Switzerland office and advises private wealth clients including individuals, families and family offices on international tax planning and related matters. He also counsels financial institutions on a range of international tax and wealth management issues, utilising his experience in assisting clients in navigating global tax initiatives and their effect on wealth management and financial services. Mr Walsh counsels private clients and financial institutions on trust and company structures, cross-border investments and relocation, FATCA/CRS (AEOI) compliance, US withholding tax and QI compliance, OECD tax initiatives, tax treaty matters, individual and corporate tax planning, funds, financial institution tax compliance and tax regularisation matters.
Sean Walsh
8. (16/04/2024) JTC appointed Sean Walsh to the role of head of private client services in Guernsey. In his new role, Mr Walsh will lead JTC’s Guernsey-based team of private client specialists, who administer a range of structures for multijurisdictional high net worth clients. Mr Walsh joined JTC as a director in 2022 and has worked in the fiduciary services sector for over 20 years. He has experience in supporting high and ultra-high net worth families and institutions with the administration of multi-jurisdictional structures. He specialises in working with UK, European and Middle Eastern families. Prior to joining JTC, Mr Walsh worked for independent fiduciary firm Saffery Trust where he developed a business development strategy while also overseeing a team specialising in the establishment, management and operation of offshore structures for ultra-high net worth individuals around the globe.
Katya Vagner, Sarah Haile and Nick Wood
9. (08/04/2024) Fladgate promoted Katya Vagner, Sarah Haile and Nick Wood to partner level, taking the total number of partners at the firm to 95. Ms Vagner, an eprivateclient Top 35 Under 35 in 2019, 2020 and 2021, joined Fladgate in 2020 from PwC and now has over a decade’s experience advising high net worth individuals on how to structure, utilise, secure and pass down their wealth. Meanwhile, Ms Haile also joined Fladgate in 2020 from Willowblade Family Office to set up and run Walgate Family Office Services. Her clients include wealth creators, their families and their family offices. Mr Wood joined in 2017 and has over a decade of experience working as a legal advisor to clients on commercial real estate transactions.
10. (25/04/2024) Fiduciary and corporate services provider Equiom hired Vicky Stables as executive director of private wealth in Jersey. Ms Stables has joined Equiom from Hawksford where she had worked for the previous seven years, most recently as head of private clients services in Jersey. Prior to that Ms Stables spent over a decade at Bank of Singapore Trust, having joined it from Bedell (now Ocorian). She also worked for almost two years at VG in Jersey.