For whom the bell tolls

Whether they are from Britain or from overseas, private clients’ needs have changed. Personal and business concerns overlap and individuals increasingly operate across jurisdictions. At Mishcon de Reya, we recognised a need to reflect this in order to provide a modern interpretation of a private client offering.

Broader reach

Historically, the focus of private client work has been on tax and estate planning, contentious trusts and probate, and family. In 2010, we established Mishcon Private, bringing together these areas, but broadening our offering to include reputation protection, immigration, families in business, family office management, residential property and art.

In this way, Mishcon Private is able to offer all the legal services an individual may need and, in keeping with the firm’s axiom: ‘It’s business. But it’s personal,’ we take a business-focused approach to managing personal client matters. For businesses, our teams provide a variety of services and often manage cross-border transactions as an extension of a client’s internal management team. Other specialists act as personal advisers to individuals, choosing, then dealing with, overseas professionals on behalf of, and as the contact for, our client. This can even be the case where there is no UK law involved.

The private client environment in the UK has seen a sea change in terms of both the provenance of the clients themselves and the breadth of service that they require. The free flow of goods and money across different economies encourages entrepreneurs to take advantage of attractive markets, and as they do so they need advice to ensure that they are protecting themselves legally and financially.
Britain is an attractive place for international clients to live and work for a number of reasons. Both the language and the time zone encourage facilitation of business on a global scale, and the fact that the country has a very stable political environment is a clear attraction for those looking for long-term investment. In addition, the fact that the rule of law is sacrosanct means that more and more international businesspeople look to establish a base in the UK as a way to protect their assets, their business or their reputation. To this end, the geography of the private client world has changed, and we realised that the only way to meet this change was to adapt our model to take into consideration the needs of our increasingly international client base.

Private clients today need counsel that is expert in UK law and well connected internationally. We look to service clients globally from our London and New York offices, positioning ourselves to guide both businesses and individuals through the legal minefield of international law. Rather than participating in a formal alliance, the firm remains independent, which facilitates the selection and retention of legal partners based solely upon recognised areas of expertise.
The firm’s international links are ?vast and varied and niche expertise is held in several jurisdictions, including India, Israel, BVI, Russia and South Africa. Our fraud group founded and runs both the Asset Protection and Recovery Network made up of international legal fraud specialists and the Financial Fraud Group for risk and compliance officers. The employment group established Labourlink, an international network of employment lawyers, and works closely with our immigration specialists.

Doubling up

Partner Kamal Rahman, who leads the firm’s immigration practices, has been working with the Home Office on investor visas. She identified that high-net-worth business people are in a position to make a significant and much-needed contribution to the UK economy in return for a fast-track visa into the UK. We initiated a lobbying campaign to persuade immigration minister Damien Green to introduce tiered levels of investor visas for individuals looking to invest either ?£5m or £10m into the UK economy. ?In one case this year, Rahman and her team secured British citizenship for a major international business investor ?and philanthropist 11 months before ?it is normally permitted by the UK Border Agency, declaring it was in the ‘national interest’.

It has been well publicised that ?Dr Christine Gill won her challenge to the validity of her mother’s will at both trial in 2009 and appeal in 2010, that her mother, Joyce, was unwell and the will bizarre, and that the £2.4m farm estate will now pass to her instead of the RSPCA. Less well known is the approach taken by the Mishcon Private team to win the case.
When Dr Gill approached the firm in October 2007, her solicitors had been running the challenge on the basis of ?the Inheritance Act 1975. As an adult child, the chances of success on this claim were very low. Our team immediately changed track, suggesting parallel claims in probate, challenging the validity of the will based on undue influence and knowledge and approval, and in equity for proprietary estoppel, based on evidence that Joyce had suggested to Christine she would inherit the farm, and that Christine had relied on this.

At trial, Mr James Allen QC found both that Joyce had been “coerced” by her husband John into making the will, and that, due to assurances made by her parents, it would be “unconscionable” for Christine to not inherit the farm. In March 2010 the RSPCA announced it would appeal. The Mishcon team cross-appealed that, due to Joyce’s confirmed agoraphobia and anxiety disorder, she did not “know and approve” the contents of the will. The appeal was heard on 29 and 30 November 2010.

The Court of Appeal confirmed the 2009 decision was right in finding Joyce’s will was invalid but gave different reasons for doing so, agreeing with Christine’s legal team that Joyce did not know and approve the contents of the will. Having won on these grounds, Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, deemed it unnecessary for the court to consider Christine’s alternative grounds. The RSPCA was unsuccessful on all counts. This represented a better result than the first instance judgment.

Precedent setting

Lord Neuberger emphasised that the facts of the case made it exceptional, and there are mixed views as to whether Gill is a precedent-setting case. The case certainly sent shockwaves through the third sector, and served as a wake-up call to charities contesting legacy cases.

To us, the injustice was clear, and we supported Christine all the way to a successful conclusion. However, our commitment and legal strategy alone were not enough to secure victory. We also had to secure the necessary funding to fight a powerful adversary. With an annual turnover of over £100m, the RSPCA had the financial clout that Christine, as a part-time lecturer and mother to a young child, did not. Using MISHCON PROTECT®, a unique package of products designed to assist clients in obtaining litigation funding, we obtained after-the-event (ATE) insurance at the start of the trial and, as it progressed, we opted to share the risk by adopting a conditional fee agreement.

Given the Jackson cost reforms, Gill is a graphic example of how a client’s quest for justice would have failed but for the kind of funding arrangements these reforms would undermine.

In 2010, we launched a 24-hour, 365 days a year, global concierge service for our clients, in conjunction with leading luxury lifestyle group, Quintessentially. This partnership illustrates our innovative and holistic approach to client relationships – we were the first law firm in the UK to enter into a partnership of this kind. It enables clients to benefit from access to an unrivalled package of privileges, preferential rates and bespoke services, for example, if they require a table at the hottest restaurant in town, need rescuing from a snow-covered chalet in the mountains, or would like the details of a reputable school for their child to attend.

So, was this all worthwhile? The figures speak for themselves: the private department has seen 25 per cent growth in revenue versus the individual groups a year ago. It seems that our decision to adapt our private client model and our belief that, in doing so, we can better meet the needs of the modern private client, have proven to be well founded.

James Libson is an executive partner and head of Mishcon Private

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