Liesl Fichardt joins BLP Tax Group from Dorseys
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has once again boosted its Tax team, bringing in another high profile individual to support its strategic drive to build on its reputation in the area and to develop further its contentious and international tax practice.
Liesl Fichardt joins BLP as a partner from Dorsey and Whitney, where she is working on the multinational ‘Group Litigation Order’ cases that are challenging major aspects of the UK tax system on the grounds of incompatibility with EU law. She works as a lead lawyer advising on and managing most of the cases, including the Franked Investment Income (FII) GLO, which have involved a large number of blue-chip corporate clients. As part of her work, Liesl has been engaged at all court levels including the European Court of Justice, the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal and the High Court . In addition, she serves as a member of the Law Society’s International Taxes Committee.
She has also been involved in a wide range of other contentious and non-contentious international, cross-border and UK corporate tax issues, and before coming to the UK acted as a judge of the High Court of South Africa, was a Chairperson of the South African Tax Board and practised as a barrister at the Cape Town Bar.
She joins the rapidly expanding Tax group at BLP at a time when the firm is building the area into a strategic pillar of legal expertise, sitting alongside its other major practice areas in Corporate, Finance, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, and Real Estate. Already the firm is one of the few City firms that is able to offer leading practices in both Corporate and Personal Tax, and it has a strong Trusts and Charities expertise. It also won the Private Client Team of the Year at the recent Legal Business Awards.
Other recent recruits to the firm’s Tax team include the new Head of Tax Michael Wistow, one of the leading tax lawyers in the UK who joined in September from Clifford Chance, and Neal Todd, a highly regarded corporate tax expert who came from Linklaters last year. Liesl will also be working alongside other top ranked individuals in the group’s team of over 30 lawyers specialising in tax.
Michael Wistow said: “Liesl has a superb track record and we are very excited about her joining, which will help us boost our contentious and international tax expertise. Tax is key strategically to most clients, who tell us it is often a critical issue for them. Most significant transactions include major tax issues and getting the best advice and solutions in relation to those issues is often critical. Contentious Tax capabilities are increasingly important and Liesl’s record in this area is second to none.”
Neville Eisenberg, BLP’s Managing Partner, said: “We are creating a unique and distinctive strength in providing legal advice on all tax matters, both contentious and non-contentious, for corporate and private clients. Michael, Neal and now Liesl are all outstanding individuals who have seen the potential of that approach and we believe that our ability to integrate new team members, work effectively across the firm and focus on the needs of our clients means that we are in an excellent position to expand our increasingly successful tax practice.”