Elizabeth Shaw

16 July 2025

Elizabeth is a Knowledge Development Lawyer supporting the Family team at Forsters.

She ensures our Family team stays up to date with the latest legal developments and takes a leading role in the training and business development strategy for the team, equipping our fee earners with the knowledge and resources they need to deliver exceptional service to clients.

Elizabeth has a particular interest and expertise in pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements. During her time in practice, she worked on the leading case of Radmacher v Granatino from first instance to the landmark Supreme Court decision.

She is a member of the Family Law Agreements Group (FLAG), which aims to provide a constructive, client-focused approach to the drafting and negotiation of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements, and the Family Law Knowledge Network. She is also a member of Resolution.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Nicola Radford

25 June 2025

Nicola has experience in acting for domestic and cross-border clients including high net worth individuals, families and trustees.

Nicola advises on a range of contested trust and estate claims, with previous experience including advising on disputes between trustees and beneficiaries, applications for the removal of trustees, and Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claims.

She joined Forsters in June 2025 from Womble Bond Dickinson where she trained and qualified as a solicitor in September 2023.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Lucinda Smart

18 October 2024

Lucinda is a Senior Associate in the Dispute Resolution team. She has experience advising clients on commercial disputes in a wide variety of sectors, including natural resources, banking and financial services, technology, and media.

She has worked on complex and high value commercial disputes across multiple jurisdictions and in a broad range of sectors. Lucinda has particular experience in cases linked to commercial fraud and has acted in proceedings at High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court level. Lucinda is also a member of Forsters’ Art Group. Her clients include corporates, financial institutions and high net worth individuals.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Emily Wyatt

8 October 2024

Emily is a Senior Associate in the Family team.

She specialises in all aspects of private family law including divorce and separation, financial claims, child arrangements, and pre and post-nuptial agreements. She also acts for unmarried individuals on matters relating to cohabitation and Schedule 1 claims.

Emily has experience of complex financial cases, including those involving trusts and family businesses, and those with cross-border elements.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Sophie Wilson

21 September 2024

Sophie is an Associate in the Family team.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Joe May

21 September 2024

Joe’s broad practice spans from advising on large commercial disputes to assisting his clients with complex trust and estates disputes.

His clients include ultra high net worth individuals, trust companies, international banks and large corporations.

Joe has particular experience in relation to complex multi-jurisdictional fraud disputes, shareholder disputes, insolvency proceedings, and contractual disputes. He has acted on cases heard in the High Court and the Court of Appeal.

Joe is a member of the firm’s Pro-Bono committee and its Green Impact network.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Charlie Paddock

21 September 2024

Charlie is an Associate in the Commercial Real Estate team where he generally focuses on the industrial and logistics sector, in addition to advising property funds on asset management and landlord and tenant matters. This often involves drafting and negotiating contracts, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations and conducting due diligence to identify potential risks to clients.

His practice extends also to the sports sector, where he has supported on the real estate aspects of a high-profile football club. This saw Charlie advise on leasing arrangements for the stadium, football pitch and training ground, maintaining adherence to regulatory requirements and optimising operational efficiency.

For all clients, Charlie operates as a strategic partner, mitigating commercial pitfalls and maximising opportunities in a dynamic and competitive market.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Anna Roe

21 September 2024

Anna is an Associate in our Private Client team.

She acts for both UK based and international clients, advising individuals, families, and trustees on a broad range of estate planning and taxation matters.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Art and cultural property

21 September 2024

Forsters’ Art and cultural property team has real breadth of experience, advising individuals, institutions and trustees in both UK and international art markets. Our clients include international collectors, auction houses, dealers, galleries, museums, charities and living contemporary artists seeking to establish structures to safeguard their artistic legacies and provide for their families. We also act for many families and trustees owning art collections and chattels of national importance.

Our team works closely with a wide range of industry specialists including valuers, curators, collection management and logistics experts, fine art agents and institutions. We are uniquely placed to advise on the practical and tax implications of creating, buying, selling and holding works of art as well as resolving any disputes that arise.

Who we help:

Artists and their estates

Our specialist team regularly advises living artists on the competing aims of safeguarding their artistic legacies and making provision for their families.

We take the time to ensure we understand what motivates each artist and their family dynamic. We advise on business structuring and contractual matters, including consignment and representation agreements, lending artwork and negotiating terms for exhibitions, both in the UK and internationally. We establish companies, partnerships, foundations and draft wills. We provide full service estate planning, including comprehensive advice on taxation and succession matters.

We want artists to benefit from high quality advice and professional advisers. Forsters regularly collaborates with Artistate, the legacy planning organisation, to build teams of professionals (lawyers, accountants, curators and archivists) that support our artist clients.

Collectors

When collectors acquire works (either by purchase, gift, or inheritance), we advise on transferring title, taxation and succession planning and source advice on valuation, authentication and provenance. We are on hand for ongoing advice for those managing the work, connecting them with specialists in the sector in collection management, curation, logistics, insurance and future acquisitions and sales. Our team draws on our business’s award winning expertise in estate planning, family governance and taxation to advise our collector clients and ensure a smooth transition to the next generation.

Dealers and private galleries

Our cross-departmental team provides specialist advice to dealers and private galleries, assisting with contracts for sale, artists’ representation agreements, consignment agreements and employment contracts. Specialists in our real estate teams are attuned to the requirements of galleries and dealers and are on hand to give practical, commercial advice on the terms of tenancy agreements for those looking to rent new spaces or renew their current leases. We are regularly instructed to assist with disputes, including those concerning authenticity, title, and breach of contract.

Great houses, museums and charities

We advise the owners of many pre-eminent national collections, often with a focus on addressing inheritance tax liabilities through the acceptance in lieu and cultural gifts schemes. We also advise on offers in lieu in situ; cases in which a piece or a collection used to settle tax is lent back to the taxpayer so as to remain on public display at the family home.

We work with families to form trusts or private charities to hold significant collections, or to raise funds to maintain objects and buildings of national importance. We often collaborate with advisers in other jurisdictions to create sister charities, enabling the trustees to fundraise in the US and elsewhere.

Auction houses

Our team regularly works with auction houses, investing time to understand the practical and legal issues that these institutions face. Our involvement includes advice to the business vehicles themselves (taxation and structuring) and the underlying auction transactions (terms and conditions and contractual issues).

We have expertise in the digital world of online sales, helping clients to reframe their terms and conditions. We have in-house experts in crypto transactions and extensive experience of UK and international contractual disputes that arise both in court and in arbitration proceedings.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Jo Thompson

29 August 2024

Jo is a Senior Associate in the Private Client team where she advises a broad range of clients including high net worth individuals, families, landed estates and trustees.

She advises both UK domestic and international clients on a wide range of tax and estate planning matters. She frequently acts for families who have cross-border personal and business interests, providing them with trust structuring, succession planning and family governance advice.

Jo has specialist expertise in advising clients from the art world, including art collectors and living artists. She advises on all matters relating to owning art, including sales and purchases; establishing tax efficient ownership structures; and advice on collection management, which includes planning in relation to heritage property.

Described as “fantastic to work with”, Jo is named in both the Art and Cultural Property and the Personal Tax, Trusts and Probate rankings of the latest Legal 500.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Amelia Walsh

29 August 2024

Amelia is a Senior Associate in the Corporate and Commercial team covering a broad range of cross-border corporate and commercial work.

She advises clients on equity capital markets transactions, mergers, acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, limited liability partnership and shareholder arrangements, company reorganisations, and general corporate governance. She is also experienced in advising family offices and high net worth individuals in relation to investments across a range of asset classes, and has spent time on secondments at a global investment bank and a venture capital conglomerate.

Amelia also provides pro bono legal advice at the South Westminster Legal Advice Clinic.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Laura Neal

29 August 2024

Laura is a Senior Associate in the Private Client team. She plays a key role in running Forsters’ Art group which focusses on acting for galleries and auction houses, as well as UK-based and international estates, trusts, foundations and collectors. Laura is ranked as an ‘Associate to Watch’ in the Chambers HNW Guide for Art and Cultural Property.

Laura also volunteers at South Westminster Legal Advice Clinic.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Lucy MacArthur

29 August 2024

Lucy is a Senior Associate in the firm’s Corporate team where she advises clients on a range of UK and cross-border transactions.

She has extensive experience in corporate real estate matters, acting for investors and developers alike on acquisitions and disposals (often with W&I insurance), restructurings, complex JVs and co-invests over all asset classes. Lucy has spent time on secondment to an international real estate developer and investor (European AUM >£20bn).

In addition, Lucy also advises international family office and ultra high net worth clients on their investments into a range of industries, including space tech, renewable energy, drinks businesses, beauty and fashion brands and tech start-ups.

Lucy is a mentor for the Social Mobility Foundation and provides pro bono advice to philanthropic groups.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Aimee Dooley-Cox

29 August 2024

Recognised in the 2025 eprivateclient NextGen Leaders list, Aimee is a Senior Associate in the Private Client team specialising in high value complex probate matters and the administration of estates. She acts for a range of clients, generally high net worth individuals and families both UK domiciled, and non-UK domiciled.

Her core expertise is in estate administration, obtaining grants of representation in the UK for testate and intestate estates. Aimee is experienced with reporting the extent of estates in the UK and maximising reliefs where available to ensure the correct amount of inheritance tax is paid if due. She enjoys working with international individuals and assisting with cross border work.

Aimee works closely with the executors and beneficiaries to implement post death variations to ensure the estate is dealt with as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

Aimee is a full member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) and has completed the STEP Advanced Certificate in Cross-Border Estates. Aimee also volunteers at the South Westminster Legal Advice Centre.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Rebecca Bion

29 August 2024

Rebecca provides practical and holistic advice, which cuts through complex family, legal and taxation interests and gives clients the information they need to press on with their objectives. Her client base is varied, acting for UK-resident and domiciled individuals, landed estates, charities, large families, executors and trustees on all aspects of estate and succession planning, tax, trust and probate matters.

Her work includes the preparation of wills; capital tax planning advice, including the availability of agricultural or business property relief and ways to maximise those reliefs; the creation and administration of trusts and charities; complex and high-value probates and the administration of estates; and mental capacity issues, such as the preparation and registration of lasting powers of attorney, existing enduring powers of attorney and deputyship applications.

Rebecca has a particular experience of acting for land and business owners in setting up structures which aid the transfer of family assets between generations, including the availability of business property relief and agricultural property relief. She has extensive experience of advising on heritage property matters, including the availability of the conditional exemption, offers in lieu of tax and the interaction between the inheritance tax and estate duty regimes.

Her expertise extends to preparing deputyship applications and guiding clients through the associated court process, working closely with our Family and Divorce team where pre-nuptial agreements are desired, and advising on bespoke business agreements for landed estate business owners.

Rebecca is also a qualified Notary Public, which provides a useful (and uncommon) additional skill that is helpful to her wider practice.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Rupert Mead

29 August 2024

Rupert is ranked in the latest editions of Chambers UK and The Legal 500. Clients recognise him as ‘extremely knowledgeable whilst also offering pragmatic solutions.’

Rupert is renowned for advising the owners of landed estates, farms and other family businesses on succession planning and family governance and acts as trustee of a number of significant estates in England and Wales. He is an established lawyer in the drafting and administration of trusts, capital tax planning, drawing up wills and powers of attorney, probate and charity law.

He specialises in developing structures that maximise agricultural and business property relief, as well as conditional exemption of heritage property, including works of art, buildings and land.

Rupert provides strategic advice to individuals, families and trustees involved in running a modern estate, which often involves a diverse range of activities and business enterprises, including in-hand farming; agricultural, residential and commercial lettings; holiday lets; land development; forestry; the exploitation of sporting and mineral rights and renewable energy sources; and the commercial use of historic houses. He will draw on the expertise of specialists from across the firm, including Corporate, Employment and Dispute Resolution to provide his clients with holistic advice that helps to deliver their personal and commercial objectives.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Catherine Hill

29 August 2024

Hailed as a ‘leader in the field’ Legal 500, 2024, Catherine’s focus is advising UK domiciled and resident clients. Catherine is praised as ‘an extremely good technical lawyer with a practical approach’ and as having ‘fantastic client skills’. She specialises in estate planning, devising holding structures for family wealth including companies, partnerships and trusts.

With long experience of managing complex estates in the UK and abroad, Catherine works closely with the Corporate and Commercial and Family teams at Forsters to deliver strategic advice on asset structuring, succession and taxation that consider both the personal and commercial perspectives.

Catherine is also highly ranked in the latest Chambers UK Guide for Art and Cultural Property Law, described as having ‘an excellent reputation for dealing with contemporary artists and their estates. She is extremely knowledgeable in this space and has all the contacts that artists need”. As well as heading up Forsters’ Art and Cultural Property group, Catherine collaborates with specialist art advisors via Artistate Limited, an organisation that she co-founded to provide the complementary services required to support artists and their estates secure an enduring legacy.

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Mary Jacobsen

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Guy Abrahams

29 August 2024

Guy is a Partner in the Private Client team, described in the legal directories as ‘highly impressive’ and with ‘extensive knowledge’. His clients include business owners, international families, private charities and the owners of landed estates.

He advises on all aspects of private client work, and specialises in succession planning and family governance. Guy advises clients on how to ensure the orderly and tax-efficient transfer of assets from one generation to the next, whether using simple mechanisms only, or corporate vehicles and complex trusts and wills. He is an expert on the inheritance tax reliefs available to the owners of businesses and heritage assets, and often acts as executor or as a trustee of family settlements.

Guy provides succinct advice to clients, in plain English, enabling them to make their decisions in the confidence that they understand what they are doing, and that they have taken the best course of action.

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Mary Jacobsen

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