Top Ten Tax & Trust Lawyers

Bart Peerless is an eminent partner who looks after some of the wealthiest and most complex families in the world. He describes the firm as a ‘top-tier’ practice for private clients, for that reason. ‘We continue to do a wonderful mix of work,’ he enthuses. An active practitioner, Peerless is proud that he spends ‘each and every day keeping up the momentum necessary to deliver progress’. Tenacity is needed to keep up with increased levels of instability and uncertainty on a global scale, he says: ‘[HNWs] seek our help in positioning themselves against risk. The various tax information exchange measures now in place between jurisdictions have also driven simplification and rationalisation of offshore structures – a process we have seen for a few years now.’ Peerless says Charles Russell Speechlys is well equipped to help clients solve cross-border tax and wealth planning problems worldwide, as it has strategically headquartered within ‘key centres for private wealth’, namely in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia. ‘We have the resource within the firm to help internationally mobile HNW and UHNW clients,’ he says. Peerless says he is able to view cases from an independent perspective, especially when problems ‘seem insoluble from the inside looking out’. Such vision is necessary for his role as trusted adviser, which he forged ‘very early’ in his career in Norton Rose’s private client arm.