Sinclair Gibson LLP

Managing Partner: Lucy Gibson

Number of partners: 11

Number of lawyers: 19

Languages: English, French, Italian, Greek

Firm Overview:

Sinclair Gibson is a specialist firm based in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, with three complementary practice areas of private client, litigation and family law.

The essence of the firm’s business approach is the provision of partner-led bespoke advice. The firm’s practitioners combine deep specialist expertise with a broad knowledge of related legal disciplines, so that our clients receive their advice across a full spectrum.

The firm strives to ensure that its clients receive high quality, innovative advice. The partners, with their supporting teams, blend legal skill with an individual, pragmatic approach. This results in the firm developing longstanding relationships with its clients and their families.

Main Areas of Practice:

Private Client:

6 partners, 14 fee earners

Sinclair Gibson’s private client group is at the core of the firm. It combines extensive expertise in advising UK-based families and landed estates on wealth structuring and devolution planning, with a specialist practice in advising international clients on multi-jurisdictional matters, including cross-border estates. The team as a whole has broad technical legal knowledge which is essential in the context of the increasing complexity of global family wealth management. The group is led by Keith Bruce-Smith and Lucy Gibson (supported at partner level by Eleanor Walsh, Angela White and newly appointed Oliver Bishop and Hazel Power as well as a team of assistant solicitors). Both Keith and Lucy enjoy considerable professional profile and recognition in their own right. Both act as fiduciaries of substantial UK and offshore trusts, and are also non-executive directors of UK companies owned by the families they advise. As such, they are bound closely to the commercial affairs of their clients.

Litigation:

2 partners, 6 fee earners

The vastly experienced Henry Hickman heads up Sinclair Gibson’s internationally well regarded litigation practice. The firm’s dispute resolution practice is primarily focused on litigation about trusts, probate and succession matters including for individuals, family offices, protectors and trustees on general contentious issues such as professional negligence. There are additional specialisms in Court of Protection and Privy Council agency work. Assisted by several other experienced solicitors, the department has recently seen an increase in claims brought under the Inheritance Act 1975 as well as disputes involving high value works of art and other chattels.

Family:

2 partners, 7 fee earners

Sinclair Gibson’s family department is led by the highly respected Kathryn Peat and James Copson. The team advises on all aspects of family law but is best known for its work with high net worth clients on complex financial remedy claims and nuptial agreements, often with an international element, and both domestic and international private children matters. Further areas of expertise include disputes involving unmarried couples and the preparation of cohabitation agreements. A significant proportion of the department’s clients are neither UK resident nor UK domiciled and they benefit from the wealth of experience the team has in international family law matters, including offshore trusts, overseas assets and international relocation of children, as well as access to the firm’s renowned Private Client team.