Each year the Spear’s Research Unit updates its index of leading Tax & Trust advisers with data supplied by firms, peer-reviews, in-depth research and dozens of interviews. Here, we profile three professionals aged 35 or under, whose careers are on a steep upward trajectory
Sonal Shah, Farrer & Co
Young Turk
Firm size: UK
Focus: Middle East wealth transfer
Sonal Shah’s star is rising in the complex tax and trusts landscape, especially where ‘complicated family dynamics’, long-standing trust matters, succession planning and cross-border issues are involved. She also has significant experience in heritage property, associated trusts and double taxation. The senior associate has a particular interest in the Middle East and intergenerational wealth transfer, and clients range from senior executives and entrepreneurs to owners and trustees of landed estates and inherited wealth, as well as international families. Shah has been with Farrer & Co since joining as a trainee in 2007.
Emily Stoneham, Payne Hicks Beach
Young Turk
Firm size: UK
Focus: Contentious trusts
Emily Stoneham is ‘an outstanding young contentious trusts lawyer’, according to Payne Hicks Beach. She joined the firm from Macfarlanes in 2017 and was promoted to senior associate earlier this year. Her colleagues enthuse that Stoneham has recently played ‘a critical role’ in many of their biggest cases, independently manages her own caseload and ‘plays an active part’ in the wider private client industry.
Her varied practice also covers probate disputes and commercially nuanced cases. She has recently worked on applications for the removal of trustees, challenging wills, and claims for unfair prejudice.
Related
Emma White, Forsters
Young Turk
Firm size: UK
Focus: Estate planning
Emma White was promoted to partner in Forsters’ private client department in April. She works on a range of complex and crossborder personal taxation and estate planning matters, with particular focus on estate planning for US citizen clients with links to the UK. The past year has been a stand-out for White. She played a pivotal role in numerous big matters, including the commercial sale of music rights on behalf of a British musician and restructuring the ownership of the controlling and majority economic shareholding in a UK listed company. She has also spoken at conferences, including the International Bar Association’s.
More from the Spear’s Tax & Trust Index:
The Spear’s Tax & Trust Advisers Index
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