About
Sarah specialises in resolving disputes concerning complex trust structures, often with a corporate asset base. She has represented individuals, trustees, and charities in claims of breach of trust, constructive trust, under the laws governing property rights on the end of a relationship or death, and in company law. Sarah has also successfully secured the rescission of trusts created under a mistake, to reverse unintended tax consequences. Sarah works with colleagues across the firm’s locations on cross-border cases.
Prior to joining the firm in 2022 Sarah practised as a barrister and solicitor at a leading New Zealand private client and trust litigation firm and, before that, in the Dispute Resolution team at a top-tier Asia-Pacific law firm.
Sarah co-authors the trust litigation chapter in the STEP-approved loose-leaf Planning and Administration of Offshore and Onshore Trusts. She is also a contributor to The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Trust Laws.
Sarah is admitted to practise in England and Wales, New Zealand and Australia.
Experience
- Dawson-Damer v Grampian Trust Company Ltd: Acting for a beneficiary, the Hon. Ashley Dawson-Damer, in the landmark breach of fiduciary duty claim concerning appointments out of a Bahamian trust worth over $400 million. The appeal to the Privy Council clarified aspects of the duty of adequate deliberation.
- Acting for a disinherited spouse of an English businessman in a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. The case involved important legal issues regarding the interplay between nuptial agreements and provision claims.
- Acting for a settlor in a successful application to set aside a Caribbean family trust connected with complex cross-jurisdictional tax planning arrangements, on the grounds of mistake.
- Advising a representative for beneficiaries in Public Trustee v Cooper proceedings in the High Court of England and Wales, regarding the distribution of a large employee share trust.
