Ross Harman and Andy Wood join Addington Chambers

Addington Chambers, the now one year old “virtual” international barristers’ chambers specialising in tax and revenue law and related Chancery and Commercial matters, has further expanded the number of its members. Two new members are joining, taking the numbers of barristers at the chambers to sixteen. The new members are:

Ross Harman, a Chartered Tax adviser and Barrister at Lee & Ko, one of the largest Korean law firms

Ross is the only English barrister currently practising in South Korea and advises clients on Korean commercial and corporate law generally, with a particular specialism in tax, including international tax and general tax consulting.
Lee & Ko is one of the largest Korean law firms, equivalent to an English “Magic Circle” law firm and a full-service firm. As one of the very few UK-educated native English speaking lawyers working in South Korea, Ross provides advice to foreign businesses and coordinates legal projects for those seeking to enter or operate in the country where there are big language and cultural barriers.
His practice areas include Corporate and Commercial Law, foreign investment in Korea, international tax, general tax consulting and advisory services, Korean employment / labour laws and regulations, Intellectual Property, anti-trust & competition laws and litigation.
Ross has been a Foreign Attorney at Lee & Ko since 2019. Before that he was a tax consultant at Deloitte for three years, a law lecturer in South Korea and a qualified barrister at the Serious Fraud Office.

Andy Wood, Chartered Tax Adviser and Barrister at ETC Tax

Andy joined the bar in 2019 after learning his ‘trade’ in large, international accountancy firms.

In 2011 he founded his own business providing tax advisory services to high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs and private companies, based in Cheshire, but with clients located all around the UK and overseas.

Andy has considerable experience in tax matters involving: property investors and developers, cryptocurrency investment, mining and other activities, high growth companies, including Seed EIS, EIS, R&D relief, Patent Box and share schemes, Employee Ownership Trusts, issues around domicile and tax residence, advising those who make a living from social media, video sharing and other modern technology platforms, advice in relation to QNUPS and QROPS – in respect of those establishing them and potential members, green and environmental taxes, HMRC disputes and dealing with historic tax avoidance cases.

He plans to bring his own commercial experience, and strong problem-solving skills to advising clients at the bar. He believes that all clients should get clear advice that should be delivered in plain English.

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners.

These two new arrivals at Addington Chambers illustrate the rapid expansion of the chambers which only began life one year ago and was set up during the pandemic by highly experienced lawyers and barristers, Adrian Shipwright and Julian Hickey. Addington Chambers is a virtual, collegiate barristers’ set of chambers, without the associated costs and overheads of being in buildings in the Inns of Court. It has rapidly expanded since its establishment, to a team of sixteen, with six full members and ten associate members.

By being virtual, the chambers are able to have a close working team with members based all over the world.

Adrian Shipwright, joint head of chambers, said: “We are delighted that Andy and Ross have joined Addington Chambers. Andy’s arrival consolidates our presence in the North of England, where we are already advising clients. He is a well-known tax adviser with a wide range of contacts and a wealth of experience in taxation matters.
In terms of Ross joining, we pride ourselves at Addington at advising British clients in areas of the world where they want to do business. We now have members or associate members working in the Middle East, Ireland, Europe, Australia and South Africa. We believe there are great opportunities in East Asia and believe we are the only London chambers with such a South Korean connection.”

“Post Brexit, we believe we will see more British companies looking at other overseas markets and we plan to position ourselves as well placed to capitalise on the demand for cross-border tax expertise.”

Joint head, Julian Hickey added: “The tax environment continues to become more complex and uncertain following Brexit and the pandemic. We have recently seen the G7 announcement on taxing the big tech companies, and we are closely monitoring the UK Government’s stance on CGT, tax collection and dealing with the debt from the pandemic. As the government needs to maximise tax collection, so businesses and individuals need to prepare.

The need for specialist tax advisers and those able to advise in related areas has never been higher both in the UK and overseas and we are delighted that we will be able to meet our clients’ needs with all our new members who have different but complimentary skills. We believe that with their help we can ensure that Addington Chambers becomes one of the strongest tax sets, strongly positioned to cope with the fall-out from the pandemic, and post Brexit, the opportunities British businesses are seeking out in the rest of the world.”