Edwin Coe LLP handles high-value, complex, and often cross-border trust and probate disputes for high-net-worth clients, including matters involving offshore structures and international estates. Practice head Shams Rahman leads on complex, high-value cross-border trust and estate disputes, including 1975 Act, beneficial ownership, and asset-tracing and freezing order cases. Joanna Osborne has been key in significant trusts litigation, and Harriet Turner, who joined from Russell-Cooke LLP in December 2025, has assisted in TOLATA matters.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • I have worked with David Goepel, Sean Bannister, and Hazel Johnson regularly, and they are professional, client-focused, and technically excellent.
  • Shams Rahman - a clear-headed and effective litigator with excellent instincts and a command of the details of the case.
  • An effective team with experience in handling many large cases.
  • The team is small but mighty, more than holding its own against the larger private client disputes firms.
  • Joanna Osborne is enthusiastic, diligent, and focused on achieving her clients' aims. Shams Rahman is a reassuring presence for clients. Commercial, efficient, and effective.
  • Shams Rahman is a class act; he provides great leadership and inspires confidence.

Key clients

  • Virtue Trustees (Switzerland) AG
  • Olga Scherbakova and Alexander Scherbakov

Work highlights

Advised a Swiss trust company on a £19m+ claim over a valuable London property held by a BVI trust set up by VT to hold the Property.
Advised individuals on a high-profile case for two individuals who were the Adult Children defendants in complex claims relating to the cross-border estate of their late father concerning considerable assets held in offshore trusts.
Practice head

Shams Rahman

Other key lawyers

Joanna Osborne; Harriet Turner