Mills & Reeve LLP

Praised for its ability to ‘understand the unique needs of owner-managed family businesses’, the Manchester-based private client team at Mills & Reeve LLP provides a broad range of private wealth legal and tax advice to high-net-worth clients, including on succession and tax planning, complex estates and trusts, and family investment companies. Clients benefit from the firm’s full-service offering, with expertise in related areas such as property, agriculture, and commercial law. The practice is co-led by Deborah Clark, who specialises in estate planning for business owners, entrepreneurs, landed estates, and individuals, and is also an expert in family businesses, and Christopher Noel, who joined from DWF in September 2023 where he was the former head of the private capital team in the north west. The group also includes Zahra Siddiqui, who provides ’a helpful, efficient and knowledgeable service' in protective wills, trust structures and various other lifetime tax planning measures, and is also experienced in assets involving multiple jurisdictions, and Charlotte Shaughnessy, who advises on estate planning and business succession, and has particular expertise in tax planning issues.