Head of Private Wealth at Herbert Smith joins BLP
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has recruited one of the UK’s leading private client experts, Rupert Ticehurst, to its Trusts and Personal Tax team.
The appointment follows the hire of partner Murray North in 2009. Murray joined from Clifford Chance with his team. Most recently Simon Michaels was recruited to launch a Private Client practice in the firm’s Singapore office, increasing the breadth and depth of service BLP can provide to trusts and private clients.
Rupert has been a partner at Herbert Smith since 2005 and headed its Private Wealth and Charities practice. He specialises in tax and trusts, particularly legal disputes for families, individuals and charities, with clients based in both the UK and overseas. He is a regular keynote speaker at major industry events and was also voted one of City Wire’s ‘Top 10 Lawyers Wealth Managers Need to Know in 2010’.
BLP’s Trusts and Personal Tax team advise on complex, high-value UK and international tax and trusts issues facing wealthy individuals, families and institutional clients. As well as Murray North, the London-based team, which is led by Jonathan Kropman, includes leading experts Damian Bloom, Anthony Bunker, Ron Downhill, Simon Phelps, Martin Paisner, and Paul Whitehead.
It is part of BLP’s Tax team, which has also been growing in size, capability and stature since the hire of industry leader Michael Wistow as Head of Tax in 2007. BLP now has the largest and broadest based tax practice in the City’s legal market and is the only large City law firm to offer the full range of tax services. Rupert’s recruitment will bring the number of tax partners in the department to 26, including Simon Michaels in Singapore, with dedicated teams to provide contentious and advisory tax advice across corporate, finance, real estate, funds, VAT, personal tax, trusts and charities.
The announcement follows a number of other recent high-profile BLP hires. In the past six months these have included: Marion Bloodworth and Lisa Mayhew, who both joined the firm’s Employment practice; Alistair Duffield, who will head up the firm’s Singapore office and will join with five other lawyers; Michael Metliss, the former head of SJ Berwin’s Property Disputes team; James Knox, one of the UK’s most highly regarded real estate lawyers; Lucy Oddy, a structured finance expert who was formerly at Clifford Chance; and Andrew Hockley, a leading competition specialist who joined from an in-house role at BP.
Commenting on the hire Jonathan Kropman, BLP’s head of Trusts and Personal Tax, said:
“We are one of the few City firms with such a strong private client team. UK – and in growing numbers international – clients face ever more complex challenges from increasingly assertive tax authorities around the world. At the same time trusts are seeing more disputes particularly at the ultra high net worth end of the spectrum.
“Trustees, family offices and the individuals for whom we act value our broad range of tax expertise as well as the skills in BLP’s other key disciplines such as real estate, funds and private equity where our advice is so useful to families, their family offices, trusts and private banks for whom we act.
“Rupert Ticehurst’s appointment, coming quickly after the launch of our South East Asia private client practice based in Singapore and our expansion into international emerging markets like Moscow and Abu Dhabi, is a key step in the continuing development of our Trusts and Personal Tax practice. His extensive trusts litigation experience will fit in very well and we are looking forward immensely to him joining us.”