Tax: Private Client - London (Bar)
Band 1
What the Team is Known For
Pump Court Tax Chambers remains the pre-eminent set for private client tax work. The set's members handle some of the most significant and complex tax litigation matters. Sources say: "Pump Court Tax Chambers has assembled perhaps the greatest concentration of tax Bar expertise in the market. They're absolutely first-class."
Strengths
Pump Court's technical expertise is almost unrivalled in the field of tax law.
The clerks at Pump Court are brilliantly responsive and good at following up.
The intellectual rigour and expertise of the barristers I have dealt with at Pump Court is unmatched.
Pump Court stands out for its specialisation in all aspects of tax, offering a wide variety of advocacy styles, and able to produce top-class opinions on complex tax matters.
Notable practitioners
Emma Chamberlain is one of the best-known and most admired tax counsel at the Bar, known for her enormous intellectual ability in complex private client tax matters matched with strong client care skills.
Emma Chamberlain is one of the go-to people for Inheritance Tax business and Agricultural Property Relief issues. She is always delightful to deal with and has a less legalistic and more practical way of approaching things, which is nice.
Emma is technically excellent and gets her point across very well with clients.
Emma is extremely knowledgeable, practical and on top of her subject.
Emma's technical expertise is second to none, and she is a real master of the legislative details and the applicable tax laws.
Kevin Prosser KC is experienced in representing affluent individuals in a range of tax matters. Prosser has a diverse and enormously successful tax practice and is hugely well regarded for his tax litigation work.
Kevin Prosser is astonishingly good.
Kevin has impressive tax knowledge.
Kevin is a superstar KC and I go to him for the most difficult cases. He is an exceptional advocate and really understands the litigation process, including evidential burden and the strengths and weaknesses of the case.
Kevin is as good as they come.
William Massey KC is a noted expert on Inheritance Tax, particularly Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief matters.
William has an encyclopaedic knowledge and remains at the top of his game on matters of the greatest complexity.
William Massey is very senior, does Inheritance Tax cases and is a safe pair of hands.
You would go to William with any problem, he is astonishingly good.
William Massey provided very clear and imaginative advice on an extremely complex and esoteric area of tax law. I don't think there is any other practising lawyer who would have been able to advise on the matter in question with such skill and clarity.
Barbara Belgrano brings sharp, technical expertise to her private client practice. She is often instructed by high net worth individuals on complex tax avoidance scheme cases and other matters involving the anti-avoidance provisions.
Barbara Belgrano is very forensic and spots the relevant details.
Barbara is very good and responsive, efficient and deals with everything well. She provides good client service and is responsive.
Barbara is brilliant. She is utterly reliable, very practical and proactive.
Ben Elliott is a well-regarded junior who frequently handles complex tax cases. Elliott appears, led and unled, in major private client tax litigation and is developing expertise in the taxation of cryptocurrency assets.
Ben is very good. He's really personable, puts clients at ease and then deploys amazing arguments.
Ben Elliott is clearly on top of his brief and is always looking for solutions.
David Ewart KC is a tax specialist with a broad practice, including private client tax work. He handles both advisory and advocacy work, and is a popular choice among taxpayer clients.
David is calm and a technically excellent advocate, clearly gaining the confidence of the judge.
David is very impressive in terms of outcome. He gets good results even in hard cases and keeps up with factual details in complex situations.
David Ewart provides excellent, well-balanced and thoughtful advice.
David Yates KC has a broad tax practice, acting both for the Revenue and taxpayers. Yates has a strong advisory practice and has also appeared in many of the major tax litigation cases of recent years.
David Yates is a world leader in his field, with a great technical ability and communication skills.
David Yates is very reliable, responsive and technically excellent.
David Yates has the greatest intellect I have ever witnessed in a barrister and communicates it in a very humble way. He is really exceptional.
David is the leading individual on employment-related securities and funds. His knowledge in taxation of funds is second to none. He is also very well regarded and highly respected by clients, being very helpful in progressing matters and getting to a good end point for the client.
David is very good on hedge funds and a go-to for such cases.
James Rivett KC is a well-regarded figure in the private client tax practice. His work encompasses corporate and personal taxes as well as indirect taxation.
James Rivett is excellent. His technical knowledge is exceptional and he is a delight to deal with.
James handles highly complex tax disputes work and is just excellent. He is very responsive, intellectually able and great with clients. His written and oral advocacy is excellent.
James has been extremely superb. He is very much the person I would go to for complex, high-value and high-profile matters. He is very good at distilling complex issues into understandable advice.
James Rivett is very good at managing client expectations and makes a point of aligning with the client.
Richard Vallat KC acts for taxpayers and HMRC on a wide range of matters involving IHT, CGT and income tax. Vallat has broad expertise in tax work, handling both advisory and litigation matters.
Richard Vallat is fantastic.
Elizabeth Wilson KC is recognised as a go-to barrister for sophisticated tax matters. Wilson is a particular expert in Inheritance Tax reliefs and Capital Gains Tax planning.
Elizabeth is very user-friendly, clear and straightforward to deal with. I found her sensible and helpful.
Elizabeth Wilson is incredibly incisive.
Elizabeth is very pleasant to deal with.
Thomas Chacko advises on high-stakes personal tax cases. He holds experience representing HMRC and high net worth clients. Chacko is notable for his expertise in the taxation of partnerships.
Thomas is highly intelligent and can grasp concepts at lightning speed. What is really impressive, though, is how Thomas has developed the skill of explaining complex legal issues to clients in simple and clear terms.
Thomas is very clever and technical.
Thomas Chacko is absolutely great. He's very bright and very sensible.
Charles Bradley represents clients facing significant tax issues in appellate courts as well as first-instance tribunals, and is particularly recognised for being experienced in dealing with HMRC.
Charles Bradley is very bright, sensible and good with clients. He is a rising star.
Charles Bradley is astonishingly good and is going from strength to strength.
Oliver Conolly wins frequent praise for his advisory work. Conolly acts for taxpayers and the Revenue in tax litigation, and he also has a strong advisory practice.
Oliver is my go-to barrister for complex tax work. He has a brain the size of a planet and makes complex tax easy to understand.
Oliver Conolly is technically excellent and very approachable.
Quinlan Windle routinely advises high net worth clients on a broad spectrum of private client tax matters.
Quinlan is very diligent, thorough and delivers things on time.
Quinlan Windle offers excellent technical tax advice and communication, and has good client-handling skills.
Ronan Magee advises on a wide range of private client tax matters, including Inheritance Tax, Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax.
Ronan is precise, detailed, and calm in the face of a challenging tribunal. He has showed his mastery of the legislation, case law and the facts.
Ronan is bright, articulate, insightful, a critical thinker and a very effective team player. Ronan has a very wide breadth of tax expertise which he is continuing to develop further, definitely making him one to watch for the future.
Sadiya Choudhury KC has a broad tax practice, including private client taxation matters. Choudhury possesses strong experience in handling both advisory and tax litigation mandates.
Sadiya Choudhury is very nice, and is thoroughly calm and collected.
Sadiya does a lot of litigation for the Revenue, which speaks for itself, and is sensible and straightforward.
Laura Poots KC acts on a range of private client tax matters and often acts for the Revenue. Poots's tax practice covers direct and indirect taxation and both corporate and personal taxes.
Laura Poots is user-friendly, accessible, available and always happy to talk.
Laura provides excellent advice. She is down to earth and bright, and a rising star.
