Filippo is a Partner in Mishcon Private and a Visiting Professor at King's College, London, where he teaches International and Comparative Trust Law. A dual qualified English solicitor and Swiss lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) he advises clients on international tax and estate planning issues. Able to approach both common law and civil law issues from a practical perspective, he routinely advises on the establishment and restructuring of both trusts and foundations as well as on UK and international tax and succession planning issues, including family governance and disputes. Filippo has also advised a number of governments on the introduction of private foundations' laws and successfully lobbied the Swiss government on the recognition of trusts in 2007 (various amendments to ratification bill).
More recently, he appeared as an expert before the Council of Europe and the EU data protection authorities in connection with the introduction of the OECD's Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and the EU's Beneficial Ownership Registers.
Filippo is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.
He has been appointed as a Judge at the San Marino Court for Trusts and Fiduciary Relations for the period 2020-2025.
A keen lecturer and avid commentator, he is rated as a leading individual in Legal 500, a Top Recommended Tax Lawyer by Spear's Magazine and as one of the UK Top Influential Private Client Lawyers by ePrivateclient. Legal 500 praises his "tremendous reputation" and "broad range of expertise" whilst Chambers & Partners says that he is a "major figure in co-ordinating cross-border European issues. He has got a unique character, is great fun and injects a light-hearted approach to a complex area while being very technically able."
Career History
Partner, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Partner, Withers
London School of Economics, LL.M
University of Zurich, lic.iur. (LL.B. equivalent)
Articles and Publications
- Equitable ownership, butter and donkeys: Setting out a vision for the future of the Hague Trust Convention, Trusts & Trustees, December 2022
- 'CRS and beneficial ownership registers – what serious newspapers and tabloids have in common', Trusts & Trustees, June 2017
- 'CRS and beneficial ownership registers—a call to action', Trusts & Trustees, April 2017
- 'Common Reporting Standard and EU beneficial ownership registers: inadequate protection of privacy and data protection', Trusts & Trustees, 26 January 2017
- 'Trusts and privacy: A new battle front', Trusts & Trustees, 26 January 2017
- 'Caught in the crossfire between privacy and transparency', Trusts & Trustees, June 2016
- War on Trusts – Where do we Stand? in: Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions, 4th Ed, STEP (2016);
- The Swiss-English Succession', Succession 3/2015 (together with Tina Wüstemann and Daniel Bader
- For and against the Registration of Trusts' – [2014] Private Client Business, Issue 3, pp. 137-141
- ‘How a trust lawyer ended up drafting a law on foundations - The experience of an English lawyer with a funny accent’, Private Foundations: A World Review (Trusts & Trustees, Vol. 20, No 6, July 2014, pp. 516 – 519.
- ‘Art. 26 OECD – Group Requests – the Birth of a New International Standard? Recent developments in Switzerland and potential ramifications for other jurisdictions’, British Tax Review [2014] BTR, No. 1.
- ‘New reporting obligations for trusts in Italy – What professional trustees and beneficiaries need to consider’, Trusts and Estates Law & Tax Journal, December 2013
- The Hague Trust Convention 25 Years On’, in Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions, 2nd Ed., STEP, 2010
- The Foundations (Jersey) Law 2009: A Civilian Perspective –Not so plain vanilla and possibly a tad wacky’, The Jersey and Guernsey Law Review, February 2010
- Trust issues', Financial Times, 25 June 2009
- The Trusts (Guernsey) Law 2007 and Other Modern Trust Laws: A Civilian Perspective’, Trust Law International, Vol. 22, No 3, 2008
- Taxation of trusts in Italy - new rules on residence and attribution of trust income to beneficiaries’; STEP Journal, March 2007
- Switzerland and the Hague Trust Convention: New Bill – A step in the right direction’, Trust Law International, Vol. 20, No 1, 2006