Position: Consultant

Penny Elliott

  • 21 September 2024
Penny Elliott

Penny is a Consultant in the Rural Land and Business team. She specialises in advising clients with multiple business interests on legal and strategic issues and her client base encompasses overseas investors, institutional property owners, landed estates and high net worth individuals.

Penny has an established reputation as an advisor to the owner/operators of five star and boutique hotels. Her ability to advise across property and business matters is at the heart of the service she provides to her clients in this sector.

She provides clients with a comprehensive service, often drawing together a range of legal disciplines to deliver a commercial solution. Penny is able to draw upon her experience as a private client lawyer to identify opportunities and solutions that will benefit her client’s private and commercial interests. She coordinates the requirements of her clients across the full range of legal specialisms and is noted by commentators for her understanding of how taxation and legal aspects relate to the business interests of her client. She has an exceptional understanding of the people behind the businesses.

Penny began her legal career advising farmers and landowners, she retains a great interest in the agricultural sector.

Mark Prevezer

  • 21 September 2024
Mark Prevezer

A Senior Statesman, Mark works closely with both our Corporate and Commercial Real Estate teams.

He joined Forsters as a senior consultant following a successful career at both international and City law firms, where he held positions including that of managing partner, senior partner and global head of real estate.

Mark is extremely well connected and known for offering his clients commercial, proactive advice in the capacity of trusted advisor.

For some 40 years he has advised global institutional clients, sovereign funds, family offices and global investors, especially from Asia and the USA, on high premium cross border corporate and real estate projects,

With strong, and proven, networking and business development skills, Mark is well known for giving strong pro-active advice, and for being hands on. A lateral thinker (he is a well known amateur chess player who has played the world champion Magnus Carlsen on 3 occasions), his skills are combined with a proven strength in developing strong personal and working relationships.

Transactions include, but are not limited to, trophy assets in gateway cities, mixed use developments, experiential based large projects, hotels, large student or senior housing portfolios, infrastructure, and substantial sole or joint venture developments.

Frequent and experienced speaker, and chair of panels, for international corporate M&A and real estate conferences.

Filippo Petteni

  • 21 September 2024
Filippo Petteni

Known for his commercial approach coupled with his specialist knowledge of the art industry, Filippo has an international practice advising art collectors (individuals, trusts and estates), galleries, auction houses and art industry businesses.

A member of the Dispute Resolution team, he has conducted litigation in both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court and is also a qualified mediator in both the UK and US.

Filippo has extensive expertise in relation to group actions and brings a depth of knowledge to guide the clients with whom he works in relation to funded litigation. He has notable experience acting in relation to disputes over artwork authenticity and is an active member of the firm’s Art group.

Christopher Findley

  • 21 September 2024
Christopher Findley

Christopher is a key advisor to landowners, farmers and rural land-owning institutions. He prides himself on providing clear advice in simple terms, offering solutions to both complex and everyday problems encountered by farmers, landowners and their families. He guides farming families through issues relating to succession to key assets and tax planning and, over 40 plus years, continues to guide the 3rd and 4th generation on their affairs.

Christopher has a particular specialism in advising on strategic land projects. He advises landowners on a wide range of option and promotion agreements to bring forward land for development and is experienced in advising groups of owners on equalising development gains and the property and tax intricacies of selling land for development.

He also boasts expertise in relation to farms and landed estates transactions, offering over 40 years’ experience in agricultural landlord and tenant problems and tenants as well as freehold owners on business restructuring for inheritance tax planning purposes.

Alison Meek

  • 21 September 2024
Alison Meek

For over 25 years, Alison has acted for executors, professional trustees/fiduciaries and beneficiaries in some of the largest trust and probate disputes in this country and in the offshore jurisdictions. She has been appointed by the court to represent the interests of an estate in court proceedings. She also has considerable experience in the Court of Protection.

Ranked in The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame for Contentious Trusts and Probate and in the latest Chambers high net worth guide, she is described in the directories as ‘a redoubtable litigator who is rarely beaten’ and a private client litigator who has ‘very sharp instincts for assessing the merits and likely outcome of a case’.

Alison is a co-editor of two of the best-known textbooks in this area, Contentious Trusts and Estates published in 2002 and International Trust Disputes, first published by OUP in 2012 and a second edition in 2019.

Alison is renowned for her purposeful and highly effective approach to resolving family disputes, backed by her vast experience and compassionate client handling skills. Although known for her robust litigation expertise, Alison prioritises a non-adversarial approach, expertly guiding clients through their options for resolving their disputes. She considers all forms of alternatives to court including mediation and negotiated settlement (ADR) and understands that ADR is frequently more likely to ensure a cost effective and better outcome for the client. She is prepared to play devil’s advocate with a client with a view to advancing possible avenues to settlement. She recognises the importance of a calm and dispassionate perspective in intense family disputes (which are rarely just about the money), while remaining acutely conscious of her client’s position and objectives.

Fiona Smith

  • 29 August 2024
Fiona Smith

Fiona is an experienced private client lawyer, having specialised in the area throughout her career. She works mainly with UK-based clients from landed estates to entrepreneurs, advising on a range of matters including wills, trusts, tax, probate and issues of mental capacity.

Described as ‘outstanding in her technical ability’ Legal 500, 2023 , she aims to provide clients with creative but practical solutions to their legal problems. Fiona frequently collaborates with colleagues and other experts in related areas such as Trust and Estate Disputes, Residential Property, and Corporate Tax.  Her practice often calls upon her additional qualification as a Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA).

Howard Gill

  • 29 August 2024
Howard Gill

Howard is an immensely experienced commercial real estate practitioner. He was a partner at Forsters since 1999 and Head of the Commercial Real Estate team for ten years.

With his extensive knowledge and intimate understanding of the market, Howard advises a range of domestic and international funds, investors and developers in relation to sales and acquisitions, development funding agreements, joint ventures as well as asset management.

He is passionate about building relationships, teams, reputations and about connecting people to advance positive outcomes. As a senior member of the Commercial Real Estate team, Howard manages key client relationships for Schroders and LaSalle Investment Management. In addition, he leads the Forsters team focusing on Asian real estate investment in the UK and regularly travels to Asia to see clients and develop new business relationships.

Howard has been with Forsters since it was founded in 1998 and has spent the majority of his career investing in the firm’s success. He is committed to supporting colleagues and helping them to develop their careers. Howard also enjoys the team dynamic at Forsters, frequently working alongside colleagues in the firm’s Private Client, Corporate, Banking and Tax, Real Estate Disputes, Construction, Planning and Residential Property teams.

Nick Jacob

  • 29 August 2024
Nick Jacob

Ranked in the latest Legal 500’s Hall of Fame and Band 1 in Chambers HNW Guide, Nick is recognised as ‘a leader in his field’ for his ‘sophisticated private wealth planning advice’, and a first class lawyer.

A Consultant in the Private Client team with over 40 years’ experience, Nick is a world renowned specialist in family governance and succession planning. Working with multi-generational business families, Nick makes it a priority to understand the psychology of the family, in order to uncover the issues and deal with these head on. Only then can Nick put in place the necessary legal structures to ensure the successful transition of wealth from one generation to the next.

Nick advises a number of globally significant families, trustees and family offices with assets and family members based in multiple jurisdictions. He specialises in all aspects of cross-border estate planning, especially trusts holding family businesses, that protect against family disputes, including divorce.

With ‘a phenomenal reputation in Asia’, (Chambers 2024), Nick has a particular focus on advising families in East Asia and understands the evolving cultural dynamics facing different generations in this region. This is demonstrated by Nick’s recognition as a foreign expert in Singapore in the latest Chambers HNW Guide; one of only three individuals named for this expertise. He has also been cast as “The Godfather of Asian Family Governance”.

He also specialises in UK taxation for individuals and trusts, cross-border taxation coordination, and advises banks and trust companies on technical issues. Nick is a STEP Emeritus Member and was named ‘Trusted Advisor of the Year’ at the STEP Private Client Awards 2024. He is also Who’s Who Global Private Client Practitioner of the Year 2023.