Charles Russell Speechlys Partner Promotions 2025
Charles Russell Speechlys today announces the promotion of 12 individuals to Partner, effective 1 May 2025, in addition to 1 Counsel, 1 Legal Director and 16 Senior Associate promotions.
Commenting on the news, Bart Peerless, Senior Partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, said:
I am delighted to be announcing a large and strong cohort of 30 promotions this year, including welcoming 12 new Partners to the Partnership. They are all richly deserving of this success and have played significant roles in helping the Firm reach its strategic goal of being the world's leading international law firm focusing on private capital.
"These promotions follow a year of sustained growth for the Firm. Since the last annual promotions update, the Firm has also made 17 senior lateral hires, with 10 of those being in its international offices.
"My congratulations to all these individuals; the future of our Firm is clearly in good hands, and I am confident that they will all make a significant contribution to its future success.
Full list of our 2025 Partner promotions:
Harriet Betteridge – Private Client – UK
Harriet advises high net wealth clients in the UK and those with overseas connections with their estate planning. Her practice allows her to work with her clients to get the fundamentals in place, such as making a will, as well as on longer term succession planning strategies. Harriet has significant experience in setting up trusts and their ongoing administration and as part of this she advises on trust taxation.
Harriet also deals with complex probate and estate administration matters often finding ways through seemingly intractable problems. Harriet specialises in international estate administration work, working with executors and beneficiaries to enable the smooth transition of assets across multiple countries to heirs, whilst ensuring that the necessary legal and tax obligations are properly fulfilled. In this area, Harriet often works with colleagues in our international offices as well as lawyers and other advisers outside of the UK.
Emily Chalkley – Employment – UK
Emily is a highly experienced litigator working in both the Employment Tribunal and High Court. On the non-contentious side, she provides HR support to corporate clients, advising on complex restructures, global employment policy changes and TUPE.
She is skilled in managing post-termination disputes with senior executives and adept at advising on settlement negotiations and severance terms. Emily has a strong track record in handling sex discrimination and equal pay cases, particularly for senior women in the financial services sector.
Her practice has an international scope, and she acts for several multinational companies on a range of cross-border employment matters and disputes. Emily holds the position of Deputy Chair of the Employment Lawyers Association’s (ELA) International Committee and is a Council Member of the American Bar Association.
Joe Edwards – Real Estate Disputes – UK
Joe is a member of the Firm’s Real Estate Disputes team. Joe has significant experience of commercial disputes involving property elements. In addition to more traditional real estate litigation work, Joe specialises in property finance disputes and secured lending mandates. This sees him acting for borrowers, lenders and guarantors in a wide range of lending matters. This will include the enforcement of security, working with interested parties in the restructuring of debt through to wider Court litigation on related lending claims (including litigation in respect of complex property finance, particularly in the development and investment space).
Joe also has a keen focus on acting for claimants in professional negligence claims, particularly where the allegations in respect of a professional involve finance or property elements. His recent experience includes acting for a group of nearly 100 claimants seeking to recover millions in connection with a fractional property investment scheme.
Joseph Evans – Dispute Resolution – UK
Joseph is a solicitor-advocate who undertakes all aspects of commercial litigation work, specialising in insolvency disputes. Joseph assists officeholders with their investigations into insolvent companies and individuals, both in the UK and overseas, with a view to recovering misappropriated funds for the estates. Joseph works on cases involving fraud, misfeasance, negligence and tax avoidance.
Joseph often acts for claimants on a contingent basis where appropriate. Joseph also has a specialist practice advising stakeholders on structuring alternatively-funded cases, including implementing litigation funding and CFA/DBA arrangements.
Guillaume Ferrand – Corporate – Paris
Guillaume started his career as a lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys in 2015 and was promoted to Counsel in 2023. He specialises in M&A and Private Equity and advises private companies and investors in their strategic capital transactions in France, including mergers and acquisitions, LBO and venture capital transactions. Guillaume is admitted to the Paris bar and graduated from the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne).
Catrin Harrison – Private Client – UK
Catrin specialises in complex tax, trust and estate planning. She assists high net worth individuals with a wide range of UK taxation matters, including the statutory residence test, the remittance basis / the new four year regime, and the taxation of offshore trusts with UK resident settlors and/or beneficiaries.
Catrin also writes Clarke’s Offshore Tax Planning: Foreign Domiciliaries, with her colleague Dominic Lawrance. This textbook on tax planning for internationally mobile clients is widely read by offshore trustees, wealth managers and tax advisers.
Richard Honey – Private Client – UK
Richard advises on a full range of private client matters, including will drafting and lifetime and post-death tax planning, with a particular focus on succession planning for individuals with family business interests. Richard also advises on trust creation and administration as well as capacity issues, including advising attorneys on their duties and responsibilities and any necessary applications to the Court of Protection, and advising on establishing and administering trusts for vulnerable individuals.
Richard has developed a niche for complex estate administration matters on behalf of executors, independent administrators, and beneficiaries, especially those with a contentious element. Richard is a key member of the firm’s Charity Legacy Administration team and his experience in advising charities covers a wide variety of issues, as well as teaching the inheritance tax modules for the Institute of Legacy Management’s charity legacy officers.
Edith Lai – Banking & Finance – UK
Edith Lai is a debt financing specialist, representing banks, debt funds, investment managers, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals. She advises on corporate and real estate finance transactions, with extensive experience in a diverse range of asset classes such as logistics, student accommodations, and healthcare. Specialising in complex cross-border deals, she frequently engages with parties from Continental Europe and Asia.
Edith is fluent in written and spoken Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) and is a key member of the Firm’s China Desk and Asia Focus Group. She is active within the UK’s Chinese-speaking business community. She has served for many years on the committee of the Hong Kong Society and is currently Vice-Chair of the Hong Kong Business Network.
Oliver Little – Private Client – UK
Oliver provides advice to UK and non-UK individuals, families, trustees and beneficiaries regarding taxation, trust and estate planning matters. He has a particular focus in advising high-net-worth individuals to coordinate their tax and estate planning across multiple jurisdictions, including the application of the statutory residence test for clients who are either moving to or leaving the UK. In addition, Oliver has particular expertise on the tax-efficient structuring of UK property ownership.
Claudine Morgan – Dispute Resolution – UK
Claudine is a highly experienced litigator who acts for corporate and individual clients on a variety of commercial disputes destined for the High Court. Her work has a particular emphasis on contractual disputes, breach of fiduciary duties, shareholder disputes, D&O claims, civil fraud, breach of warranty, professional negligence, supply of services, and misrepresentation.
Her Chambers & Partners ranking as Up and Coming reflects her ability to manage complex and technically demanding cases. ‘Commercially astute, she is passionate about pursuing the right outcome for her clients’. ‘The powerhouse of the team is Claudine Morgan, whose energy, efficiency and knowledge are enviable.’
Ashwin Pillay – Corporate – UK
Ashwin advises on a range of corporate matters with a focus on private company mergers and acquisitions and private equity investment work for a variety of individuals, institutions and management teams as well as acting on corporate governance matters including corporate reorganisations. Ashwin works with a wide variety of clients across many sectors and on all aspects of these matters.
Ashwin is also Chair of the Charles Russell Speechlys Sports & Social Committee.
Sarah Wray – Private Client – UK
Sarah advises on all aspects of private client work. However, her particular specialism is Landed Estates, both rural and urban, and heritage property. Sarah is passionate about helping her clients, many of whom have held their Estates for hundreds of years, to build strategies which ensure the long-term integrity and success of the Estate. This involves ensuring good internal governance, with open dialogue between trustees, beneficiaries and key executives, within a flexible structure able to respond to the pressures, and opportunities, of the modern world.
Counsel Promotion:
Elena Dunn – Global Private Client – Zurich
Elena is a UK solicitor with over 11 years of experience. She has wide experience in advising international clients on personal, business and philanthropic interests. Elena advises on UK and international tax issues and on tax regularisations where necessary, as well as in relation to planning for the future and having an appropriate succession plan in place, often across multiple jurisdictions. Elena also advises individuals on moving to or from the UK and issues to consider regarding family structures, such as trusts, partnerships and companies. Elena has also assisted with a range of cross-border succession matters, and has extensive experience working with trustees and advises on general trust law issues and the preparation of bespoke trust documentation.
Legal Director promotion:
Hayley Lalsing – Private Property – UK
Hayley works in the Private Property team and has a broad range of experience in residential property transactions, acting for private individuals based both in the UK and internationally, trustees, and company directors. Hayley has particular experience and expertise acting for private banks in connection with their property financing requirements.
Hayley works closely with the firm’s Banking and Matrimonial teams in a wide range of property matters, including freehold and leasehold sales and purchases, high value transactions, new builds, re-mortgages and transfers of equity.
Senior Associate Promotions:
Elinor Boote, Private Client – UK
Tom Denham-Smith, Private Wealth Disputes – UK
Will Dewey, Private Client – UK
Georgia Fullarton, Commercial Dispute Resolution – Dubai
Christopher Hadnutt, Construction, Engineering & Projects – UK
Will Harwood, Real Estate – UK
Lynsey Inglis, Real Estate – UK
Grace Hudson, Corporate – UK
Clément Missey, Corporate – Luxembourg
Molly Moseley, Corporate – UK
Imran Moutaabbid, Corporate – Luxembourg
Tessa Newman, Corporate Tax – UK
Louise Paterson, Private Client – UK
Briony Richards, Employment – UK
Charlie Searle, Private Client – UK
Sophie Willis, Real Estate – UK
Related coverage:
New Law Journal, ePrivateClient, Law360 (subscription required)
