4-6 years PQE Solicitor

The Firm

Payne Hicks Beach is a 45 partner firm of solicitors based in offices at 10 New Square, Lincoln’s Inn. In total the firm comprises about 200 staff. The firm provides specialist legal services to private and commercial clients. We are best known for our family and private client work and are widely regarded as one of the very best of the small number of firms in the UK who provide these specialist services at the highest level. We also have an excellent reputation in many other areas of law (rated in both Chambers and Legal 500).

Our offices are located in one of the finest squares in London, a building which the firm has occupied since 1770.

More information about the departments and the work of the firm may be found on our website, the address of which is www.phb.co.uk

The Private Client department

The Private Client department has two sections, the legal section and the tax and trust section. The legal section consists of solicitors and legal executives (specialising exclusively in probate and estate administration), and the trust and tax section comprises qualified and unqualified trust and tax accountants and practitioners, including three apprentices. These two sections work closely together on our clients’ affairs so as to provide a seamless service.

The department is currently 50 strong, with twelve Partners, one Consultant, five Senior Associates and six Associates, two Chartered Legal Executives and one Probate Executive, eight Trust Managers and Accountants, one Professional Support Lawyer, one Trainee Solicitor, seven Apprentices, and six secretaries.

The Role

You will be expected to assist Partners and other members of the team in giving lifetime and testamentary tax and estate planning advice, trust and structuring advice, prepare Wills (and related testamentary documents) and all forms of trust documentation, and to work closely with the Department’s tax and trust team.

Your work will include advice on inheritance tax and capital gains tax issues (including potential mitigation strategies) and on trust and company law, as well as probate and mental capacity matters. You should have a strong background in Private Client work, good knowledge of tax, trust and private client law generally, and the ability to give excellent, clear and succinct explanations, in writing and in person.

You will be advising both resident and non-resident individuals and trustees, and their family offices, in relation to UK tax legislation affecting them and their investments, including:

• pre-immigration and emigration planning,
• trust creation and distribution strategies;
• the administration of complex multi-national estates;
• tax efficient asset structuring and testamentary planning;
• estate and tax planning associated with divorce;
• trust and tax advice associated with contentious trust and probate claims;
• Charities and philanthropy; and
• family owned businesses and family governance.

You may be asked to embark on STEP/CTA exams.

The Individual

You should have the following attributes:

• A confident, personable nature.
• The ability to be proactive and reactive in addressing clients’ affairs and requirements.
• Strong communications skills and an ability to work as part of a team, including with our trust team and other professionals within and outside this firm.
• A track record of achieving minimum time targets and meeting regular billing requirements.
• The desire and ability to keep abreast with changes in legislation and market developments.