Areas of Practice
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
Legal 500, Hall of Fame, 2020 & 2022 – 2025
Private Client Global Elite, Global Elite Lawyer, 2024
Chambers HNW, Senior Statespeople, 2023
Chambers UK, Ranked Individual, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022 – 2024
Legal Week Private Client Global Elite, Elite Lawyer, 2022
Chambers HNW, Ranked Individual, 2017 – 2022
Recommended Tax Lawyer in the Spear’s Tax & Trust Index, 2021
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
Conference Speaking
Private Client Forum – Hero to Zero – How do the Mighty Fall?, 2019 – Co-speaker
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
Recommended by Sue
Stricter EU controls on the import of cultural goods are set to reshape the international art market ahead of Regulation 2019/880 coming into force in June 2025. Partner, Fred Clark and Trainee, Abi Meho explore the implications for art market participants—from heightened compliance demands to questions around provenance and personal liability.
Read more 3 min read 01 Apr 2025 Boodle Hatfield announces promotions of Sophie Henwood and Fred Clark to PartnerLeading private wealth and real estate law firm, Boodle Hatfield, is delighted to announce the promotion of Sophie Henwood and Fred Clark to Partner, effective from 1 April 2025. Both Sophie and Fred trained and qualified at the firm through our graduate recruitment programme and have since built strong relationships and reputations in their respective Real Estate and Corporate & Arts markets.
Read more 3 min read 27 Nov 2024 Boodle Hatfield advises the L.A Mayer Museum for Islamic Art on the loan of Marie Antoinette’s jewelled watchBoodle Hatfield has advised the L.A Mayer Museum for Islamic Art in Jerusalem on the loan of Abraham-Louis Breguet’s legendary Marie Antoinette timepiece to London’s Science Museum. This historic watch, celebrated as “the world’s most famed,” will feature in the Versailles: Science and Splendour exhibition, running from 12 December 2024 to 21 April 2025.
Read more 3 min read 26 Jun 2024 Leading private wealth & real estate firm Boodle Hatfield announces continued financial growthBoodle Hatfield, a leading private wealth and real estate law firm, announces today that fee income during the 2023-24 financial year remained strong at £33.1m in a shortened financial . Due to basis period reform changes affecting all law firms, this financial year was truncated to 11 month.
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