Schofield Sweeney

Schofield Sweeney is an award-winning full-service commercial law firm that takes pride in being recognised as a Times Best Law Firm and a Sunday Times Best Places to Work in 2024 and 2025.

Its 175-strong team of legal professionals is dedicated to providing ambitious businesses and individuals with the full range of commercial legal advice, to help them grow, deal with challenges and plan for the future. This includes high-profile and complex transactions, wealth protection, contentious issues, and comprehensive risk management.

With more than 25 years of experience, their legal experts work collaboratively and are recognised nationally in areas such as planning, environmental law, contentious probate, and real estate, with niche specialities in Islamic finance and small energy projects.

Its diverse clientele ranges from exciting start-ups through to long-established family-run businesses, alongside international brands and household names.

Private Wealth and Tax 

Schofield Sweeney is trusted by generations of families, as well as trustees, business owners and landowners, to provide sensitive and astute legal guidance that protects private or family wealth.

With a team comprising multiple members of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) and a chartered tax advisor, they value building personal relationships with their clients.

They collaborate closely with a trusted network of tax and financial advisers to provide a comprehensive service encompassing wills, trusts and probate, succession planning, Inheritance Tax planning, LPA and deputyship, stamp duty land tax. They also have considerable expertise and experience in respect of the use of family investment companies (FICs) as vehicles to support tax and estate planning strategies.

John Feaster is a nationally recognised expert in stamp duty land tax and heads a group within the team providing specialist SDLT advice to a large network of professional practices throughout the country

Schofield Sweeney also advises the executors and beneficiaries of deceased estates.

Contentious Trusts &Probate 

Schofield Sweeney provides advice on all types of Will, Trust and Estate disputes, including Inheritance Act Claims, mediations and conflict resolution.

The team has extensive experience of dealing with disputes related to land and property ownership under the Trusts of Land Appointment Trustees Act 1996 as well as farming and agricultural disputes, and proprietary Estoppel claims. It has a growing reputation of acting for HNW clients based nationally and internationally, often involving cases with complex cross-border and multi-jurisdictional issues.

The team is often instructed in Trustee and Executor disputes and works in collaboration with the wider Private Wealth Team, providing clients with an all-round wealth protection service.

The team prides itself on providing not only the legal expertise and knowledge required in this niche area of practice but also on its ability to provide pragmatic and cost-effective solutions to its clients.

Several members of the team are members of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists(ACTAPS)and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Succession planning and specialist legal advice for owners of overseas businesses

Schofield Sweeney has been advising clients in the Middle East (and beyond) for over a decade, particularly those based in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE. They provide expert guidance in succession planning, Islamic Finance, and business immigration, helping clients navigate complex legal landscapes.

The Private Wealth and Succession team work closely with the various other departments in the firm to advise upon and implement strategies to protect and maximise clients’ wealth, wherever that is and whatever it is comprised of.