Wilsons

Wilsons is ranked as one of the top private client and charity law firms in the country. Its almost 300 years heritage, combined with lawyers who are recognised leaders in their fields, enables Wilsons to provide a unique combination of skills and experience to individuals, entrepreneurs, companies, landowners, trust companies and charities.

Wilsons has built its national reputation on the strength of its private client and charity practice, a strategy which it has pursued consistently for over 30 years. Working from their Salisbury and London offices the firm currently employs 170 people including 32 partners.

The firm prides itself on the quality of its bespoke service delivery. Its lawyers are dedicated to ensuring a detailed understanding of their clients’ interests and a seamless working relationship across the different specialities of the practice.

Private Client: The firm acts for those with business interests, individuals with landed and inherited wealth, foreign domiciliaries, UK and offshore trustees and non-resident individuals with links to the UK. IT has developed a high-profile client base, providing services including tax planning, estate and succession planning, asset structuring, UK and offshore trust formation and advice, wills and trusts and estate administration. The firm regularly deals with probates and intestacies valued at up to £50m and sometimes more. The family team’s legal expertise ranges from pre-nuptial agreements and civil partnerships to divorce and children’s arrangements.

Property: Many of Wilsons’ clients have substantial commercial, agricultural and residential property interests and the firm advises on purchasing, letting and sales, and has a reputation for gaining excellent results for landowners in the options over and sales of development land. Wilsons’ clients include religious, charitable and educational organisations, overseas clients and landowners.

Litigation and dispute resolution: Wilsons have one of the largest teams outside London. The firm advises clients on a wide range of contentious matters to provide an efficient and effective means of dispute resolution. Wilsons’ litigation team works closely with the private client team to advise clients on a wide range of matters, particularly contentious trust and probate disputes. In addition to its expertise in agricultural and probate disputes, the firm has specialists who can advise on all aspects of commercial dispute claims.

Commercial: The commercial team has specialist lawyers in employment, commercial property, insolvency and corporate work. The corporate work focuses on the three main areas of private equity: commercial tax and asset planning, transactions and refinancing. Wilsons’ private equity clients are mainly wealthy individuals and groups investing in businesses, start-up companies and those requiring capital injections. The team deals with an unusual breadth of work much of which comes from referrals from private clients with business interests and charity clients requiring high-quality, bespoke commercial advice.

Agriculture: During the last 20 years, Wilsons’ rural team has developed a practice centred on the legal needs of rural business and landowners. These include complex sales and purchases, development options for landowners, grants and diversification advice and property litigation, including landlord and tenant, partnership matters, boundary, title and rights of way disputes.

Charity: Wilsons has one of the most highly ranked teams in the UK. Unlike many of its competitors, the firm advises on the complete range of a charity’s legal needs and has a particular specialism in contentious and non-contentious legacy work, acting for charities. The constitutional and governance team has considerable expertise in advising military charities and the charitable care sector.