James McKean

Trusts, Wills & Estates

James specialises in disputes over wills, trusts, and estates. These range from the high-value (a claim against a £118 million estate) to the bizarre (a disputed trust made primarily to benefit a tortoise).

His clients include high-net-worth individuals, charities, and celebrities, or their estates, but also the extremely vulnerable, among them minors and those without capacity. James also acts in off-shore disputes, having been instructed in matters governed by the laws of Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, where he advised the successful claimant in Mueller v Parc Aviation Services at first instance and on appeal: SUM20/0091 and 2DS 2023/01.

James frequently gives seminars, provides in-house training, and writes articles on his area of practice, having written for the Trusts and Estates Law & Tax Journal, Today’s Wills & Probate, the New Law Journal, the STEP Journal, and BJPsych Advances, as well as providing headnotes for the Wills & Trusts Law Reports.

He edits the upcoming edition of the textbook Parry and Kerridge: The Law of Succession and contributes to Williams, Mortimer & Sunnucks on Executors, Administrators and Probate.

He has also assisted the campaign to reform the Wills Act 1837 to counter predatory marriage.