Sally Ashford > Charles Russell Speechlys LLP > Guildford, England > Lawyer Profile

The ‘unerringly professional’ tax, trusts and probate team is at the core of Charles Russell Speechlys LLP’ offering in Guildford with recent work involving family business clients and cross-border estates. Practice head Sally Ashford has been described as ‘highly intuitive, generous, friendly and incredibly dynamic’ and specialises in estates and family succession planning including inheritance tax mitigation and trusts and Court of Protection matters. Richard Honey ‘provides responsive and practical support’ and goes ‘above and beyond’ to assist high-net-worth individuals with succession planning and trust structuring work and, more recently, issues involving cryptocurrencies and digitally held assets. New arrival Harriet Betteridge offers substantial experience across a range of matters including estate administration and specialist tax advisory work covering IHT areas and CGT matters. Kathryn Robinson works with large national charity clients and private clients on wills, lasting powers of attorney and lifetime inheritance tax planning. Natalie Butler is also noted by clients.

Suzanne Marriott and Sally Ashford co-head the department at Charles Russell Speechlys LLP, which is an integral part of the wider private wealth practice. As a result, it regularly handles major multi-jurisdictional disputes, as well as cases with fraud and other issues relating to the management of large estates and global asset portfolios. Marriott is a member of the Solicitors for the Elderly and the STEP special interest group on mental capacity. Ashford is also a member of the STEP special interest group on mental capacity. Marriott often acts as a trustee, executor, deputy, attorney and charitable trustee for many well-known clients. Ashford concentrates on deputyship matters, and other issues such as statutory will applications. Ashford deals with complex capacity issues, in addition to acting as a professional deputy on welfare, property and financial affairs.