Mr David Brownbill KC > Chambers of Elspeth Talbot Rice KC > London, England > Barrister Profile
XXIV Old Buildings Offices
XXIV Old Buildings
24 OLD BUILDINGS, LINCOLN'S INN
LONDON
WC2A 3UP
England
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Mr David Brownbill KC
Position
David Brownbill KC specialises in international trust, company and financial services disputes and advice. His experience covers international trust, corporate and commercial structuring; investment funds, commercial trusts and pensions; political risks, international sanctions, investment disputes and bilateral investment treaties.
David’s litigation work covers all matters within these fields, in both the English and the Commonwealth courts. David has been called to the Bar of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, has appeared in the courts of the British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Gibraltar, and the Isle of Man and regularly advises on cases in Anguilla, Antigua, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Singapore.
Clients value his ability to manage cases whose size, complexity and profile make them extremely difficult to handle. David has, accordingly, acted in numerous international and offshore trust, company and commercial disputes, including substantial fraud and asset recovery claims, both in England and overseas. David has also acted in various disputes concerning investment funds including a number of Madoff related matters.
David advises on the transactional as well as the litigation aspects of investments funds and commercial trusts generally and is regularly instructed to advise on complex trust and corporate documentation. David is well known for his ability to devise innovative solutions to problems, particularly in cases where tax and other transactions have gone awry.
David has for many years been concerned in the planning of international estates and family enterprise succession, including devising complex family governance and control structures.
David has also assisted various jurisdictions on the drafting of trust and company legislation and, most recently, has been retained in the Bahamas to advise on and draft legislation to provide for the arbitration of trust disputes, to introduce new features to its trust law and to abolish perpetuities.
David is an editor of International Trust Laws, and a member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.
Career
Called 1989; Grays Inn; formerly a solicitor, admitted 1980; Silk 2008.
Memberships
- Academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law
- Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), serving on the International Committee
Education
LLB, Nottingham
Lawyer Rankings
London Bar > Private client: trusts and probate
(Leading Silks)Ranked: Tier 2David Brownbill KC –XXIV Old Buildings ‘David is a fantastic technical lawyer with an ability to reduce complex analysis to readily understandable work product. He is thoroughly committed to his clients and understands all the context and nuance of trust work.’
XXIV Old Buildings is a ‘well-known and reputable set with exceptional offering for contentious trust and estates work’. Elspeth Talbot Rice KC is a ‘robust and client-friendly advocate’ – she appeared in the Bermudian Wong v Grand View case before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council regarding the powers of trustees, stemming from disagreements within the family of the founders of Formosa Plastics Corporation; before the same forum David Brownbill KC represented the claimants in Perry v Lopag, who seek to challenge the transfer of a Caymanian company into a Liechtenstein trust on the basis that the settlor made a mistake regarding the rights of the beneficiaries under Liechtenstein law, which changed in a way unfavourable to them. Edward Cumming KC represents the children of Monty Python star Terry Jones in a trust and probate dispute with his second wife. Turning to the set’s juniors, Owen Curry successfully represented a man who applied under the Relief From Forfeiture Act 1982 after admitting being convicted of the manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility of his wife. Adam Cloherty KC was appointed silk in 2023.