Bethan is Of Counsel, Knowledge Lawyer for Private Wealth Disputes, part of Mishcon Private.
Bethan provides technical support to the team and assists in fee earner training, professional development as well as working with the team on strategy and practice development initiatives. She is also responsible for centralising know-how, risk management and best practice. Bethan has a wealth of experience, specialising in advising lay and professional clients on all types of contentious trust and succession matters from private practice. This comes as a result of training and qualifying at Charles Russell LLP (now Charles Russell Speechlys), where she worked in the Contentious Trusts and Estates team as a Senior Associate. She is the co-lead of the Mental Capacity Group.
Bethan is a member of ACTAPS and STEP.
Key Experience
Fee earning experience includes
- Advising Personal Representatives/ Executors in respect of their duties and issues arising in relation to the administration, in addition to applications to remove or replace Personal Representatives/ Executors.
- Bringing and defending claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
- Claims challenging or defending a contested Will and claims disputing lifetime gifts on the basis of undue influence/lack of capacity.
- Applications for grants of probate in difficult or contentious scenarios; lodging and removal of caveats and related probate applications including practice and procedure in the probate registry.
- Applications to rectify Wills.
- Advising trustees, including charity trustees, in respect of their duties and various issues arising in respect of the administration of their trusts.
- Challenges to the validity of a trust deed on basis of mistake; application of Hastings-Bass principles and Variation of Trust applications.
- Advising on professional negligence issues in drafting/ ensuring execution of Wills including the applicability of White-v- Jones principles.
- Advising charities involved in disputed estates and facing challenges or investigations from the Charity Commission.
- Protection of the interests of minors in litigation and advising litigation friends in contentious trust matters.
- Disputes in the Court of Protection.
- Claims in proprietary estoppel and constructive trust claims relating to property.
Career History
Managing Associate, Knowledge Lawyer, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Professional Support Lawyer, Mishcon de Reya
Senior Associate, Charles Russell LLP
Associate, Charles Russell LLP
University of Bristol, Law LLB