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Withers

SUITE 2005-7, 20/F GLOUCESTER TOWER, THE LANDMARK, 15 QUEEN'S ROAD, CENTRAL HONG KONG
Tel:
Work +852 3711 1600
Fax:
Fax +852 3711 1601
Web:
www.withersworldwide.com
Email:
Zurich, Tortola, New York, New Haven, Milan, London , and 3 more

The firm

Withers is a firm which has specialised in representing wealthy families for over a century. Formed in London to cater to the needs of the landed gentry and industrial fortunes of the Victorian era, Withers continues today to work with many of England’s and now Europe’s pre-eminent families. In 2002, the firm merged with Bergman Horowitz and Reynolds, a leading American tax firm, to create an international presence working with wealthy families from many parts of the world. Today, the firm has nine offices in three continents with specialists with broad linguistic and technical skills, admitted in a number of countries. Withers serves almost all the legal needs of families, from tax and succession planning to corporate work, and from real property to divorce.

Withers provides integrated answers to the US, UK and international legal and tax needs of its high-net-worth clients, whether this means restructuring their assets, buying or selling businesses and properties, coping with divorce, termination of their employment, or setting up charitable foundations.

Withers has one of the largest teams of specialist US private client lawyers in Europe and Asia, and more Italian speakers than any other City law firm. The firm offers English and Italian law advice from its Milan office. For more than two decades, the firm has been assisting Italians investing and doing business in the UK and beyond. In 2010, Withers expanded its Italian desk presence, which is now in Milan, London and New York.

The firm’s Geneva and Zurich offices provide complex cross-border legal and wealth management advice. The Swiss team has experience and expertise in common and civil law, as well as Sharia law, and is uniquely placed to advise international clients wherever they are based.

The firm’s Hong Kong office offers a comprehensive range of US, UK and international tax and trust services as well as matrimonial advice. It also works extensively with family offices and advise families on governance and philanthropy as well as working with charities on a range of issues, including dual-qualified structures and other international tax planning strategies. As one of the largest specialist matrimonial teams in Hong Kong, Withers represents clients in all fields of family law. The firm’s family law team won the Asian Legal Business Matrimonial Law Firm of the Year award 2011.

Areas of practice

Withers has over 120 tax and trust specialists in the UK, US, Hong Kong and Switzerland, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive private client practices in the world. This has enabled the firm to respond to client needs by forming dedicated teams which serve particular categories of clients including hedge fund principals and investment managers, entrepreneurs, families, family offices, investment and private banks, charities, trust companies, landed estates and the globally wealthy.

Withers is a market leader for family law and has a preeminent reputation for work involving significant family resources, complicated tax issues and all problems relating to children. The team also advises major international banks on issues relating to trusts and divorce and on the hot topic of asset preservation in the divorce context. It can also call in other experts from its divorce and contentious trusts teams from its London office. There are a total of 54 specialist divorce and contentious trust solicitors in Hong Kong and London. No other law firm in Hong Kong has the same level of expertise and in such depth.

Withers is one of the very few firms that has a specialist practice in litigation relating to trusts and probate. It is also well-known for its litigation expertise in fraud (particularly tracing assets through trusts), employment, insolvency, professional negligence and art. The firm’s charities and philanthropy practice continues to grow. It is supported by a range of linked specialties from across the firm.

Languages
Cantonese
English
French
German
Mandarin
Italian

Other offices
BVI
Geneva
Greenwich (Connecticut)
London
Milan
New Haven (Connecticut)
New York
Zurich

International groupings
Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
Hong Kong Trustees Association
International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers

Number of lawyers 375

at this office 16

Above material supplied by Withers LLP.

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