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Sue Laing

Sue Laing_web

Partner
Private Client & Tax

+44 (0) 20 7079 8401 download vcard
Sue Laing_web

Throughout her professional career she has advised wealthy UK and international clients and their trustees who hold complex assets, including valuable private businesses, on long term asset protection and devolution.

She provides expert guidance on succession planning, long-term asset protection, capital and income taxes, trusts, private companies, partnerships and the family businesses themselves dovetailing both legal and practical advice.

Sue also deals with private client related disputes; her experience and reputation has led to the Court appointing her as Administrator in two recent contentious probate cases.

She is a member of the Society of Tax and Estate Practitioners (STEP), the Estates Business Group, which represents the top 30 Landed Estates in the UK, the CLA Tax Committee, and a founder member of Professional Advisers to the International Art Market (PAIAM).  She served on the first UK GAAR committee from 2013 to 2018.

Areas of Practice

Private Client, Charities, Philanthropy & Non-Profit, Trust & Succession Planning, Wills & Lasting Powers of Attorney, Probate & Administration of Estates, International Wealth Planning, Family Business, Families & Family Office, Tax & Advisory, Landed Estates, Heritage Property and Art

Track Record

Sue leads the strategic trust and tax planning advice for a large, high-profile, family property business. Recently, this advice has included a major review of the way in which the business is held through family trusts and a complex Variation of Trust Application designed partly to secure protection for the trustees of those trusts against potential personal liability in future. Other recent matters with which Sue has been involved include:

Reorganising two very large non-UK Will Trusts, originally set up offshore by a non-domiciliary and which own a trading group with subsidiaries in various countries together with a valuable portfolio of investments held through offshore structures

Giving strategic advice in relation to a complex probate where the assets include valuable chattels; liaising with a major auction house and a well known public institution about possible access to those chattels, with a view to a large conditional exemption claim; then negotiating the terms of that claim with HMRC; whilst also varying some of the main family trusts in order to prolong their life spans, for both asset protection and tax reasons

Advising a Spanish national, tax resident in Switzerland but who also lives partly in France and has assets held personally or in trust in both those countries and the UK, the US and several offshore jurisdictions, in relation to her Will, succession planning and wealth structuring, including the devolution of those assets

Advising the Family Office of another major trading Group in relation to the transfer of shares to the next generation and assisting individual owners to structure and implement their personal philanthropy initiatives

Awards & Rankings

Citywealth Top 100 Private Client Lawyers 2021

Chambers HNW, Ranked Individual, 2017 – 2021

Recommended Tax Lawyer in the Spear’s Tax & Trust Index, 2021

Spear’s 500, Recommended Tax & Trusts Lawyers, 2019 – 2021

Chambers UK, Ranked Individual, 2017, 2018 & 2020

Legal 500, Hall of Fame, 2020

Legal Week Private Client Global Elite, Top 200, 2018, 2019 & 2021

Who’s Who Legal, Private Client – Listed Individual, 2018

Legal 500, Leading Individual, 2017 & 2018

Citywealth Magic Circle Awards, Outstanding Individual – Shortlisted, 2017

Citywealth Powerwomen Awards, Inspirational Woman of the Year – Shortlisted, 2017

Conference Speaking

Private Client Forum – Sudden Death: The Realities of Immediate Family Disruption, 2017

Private Client Forum, Villa d’Este 2014, 2016 – 2019

Publications

Tax Journal

Memberships

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)

Founder member of Professional Advisers to the International Art Market (PAIAM)

GAAR Committee 2013 – 2018

Education & Qualification

University of Oxford

Qualified as a solicitor in 1978

Sue leads the strategic trust and tax planning advice for a large, high-profile, family property business. Recently, this advice has included a major review of the way in which the business is held through family trusts and a complex Variation of Trust Application designed partly to secure protection for the trustees of those trusts against potential personal liability in future. Other recent matters with which Sue has been involved include:

Reorganising two very large non-UK Will Trusts, originally set up offshore by a non-domiciliary and which own a trading group with subsidiaries in various countries together with a valuable portfolio of investments held through offshore structures

Giving strategic advice in relation to a complex probate where the assets include valuable chattels; liaising with a major auction house and a well known public institution about possible access to those chattels, with a view to a large conditional exemption claim; then negotiating the terms of that claim with HMRC; whilst also varying some of the main family trusts in order to prolong their life spans, for both asset protection and tax reasons

Advising a Spanish national, tax resident in Switzerland but who also lives partly in France and has assets held personally or in trust in both those countries and the UK, the US and several offshore jurisdictions, in relation to her Will, succession planning and wealth structuring, including the devolution of those assets

Advising the Family Office of another major trading Group in relation to the transfer of shares to the next generation and assisting individual owners to structure and implement their personal philanthropy initiatives

Citywealth Top 100 Private Client Lawyers 2021

Chambers HNW, Ranked Individual, 2017 – 2021

Recommended Tax Lawyer in the Spear’s Tax & Trust Index, 2021

Spear’s 500, Recommended Tax & Trusts Lawyers, 2019 – 2021

Chambers UK, Ranked Individual, 2017, 2018 & 2020

Legal 500, Hall of Fame, 2020

Legal Week Private Client Global Elite, Top 200, 2018, 2019 & 2021

Who’s Who Legal, Private Client – Listed Individual, 2018

Legal 500, Leading Individual, 2017 & 2018

Citywealth Magic Circle Awards, Outstanding Individual – Shortlisted, 2017

Citywealth Powerwomen Awards, Inspirational Woman of the Year – Shortlisted, 2017

Private Client Forum – Sudden Death: The Realities of Immediate Family Disruption, 2017

Private Client Forum, Villa d’Este 2014, 2016 – 2019

Tax Journal

Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)

Founder member of Professional Advisers to the International Art Market (PAIAM)

GAAR Committee 2013 – 2018

University of Oxford

Qualified as a solicitor in 1978

Back to all people

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