Band 3
Provided by Julia Burns
Julia mediates the full range of contentious private client disputes including:
- Contested probate including will validity on the grounds of testamentary capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, undue influence, lack of due execution and fraudulent calumny.
- Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claims
- Contentious Court of Protection matters, including Statutory Wills and Lasting Power of Attorney Disputes
- Constructive Trust and Proprietary Estoppel
- Trust Disputes
- Farming and agricultural disputes
- TLATA claims
- Missing will disputes
- Family business disputes
Julia Burns is a contentious private client mediator through her own practice, Dove in the Room. She has extensive experience mediating inheritance, trust and estate disputes for high-net-worth families, trustees, charities and professional advisers. Qualifying as a solicitor in 2005, she has specialised in contentious private client work since 2007, including six years at a leading national law firm. Julia founded Dove in the Room in 2019 to provide a calm, discreet and constructive way for clients to resolve high-value and emotionally charged disputes outside court.
She also co-mediates complex, multi-party cases as a founder of Inheritance Co-Mediation, a model particularly effective for high-value family and trust disputes. In addition, Julia works as a conflict coach, helping families and private individuals navigate sensitive succession issues with clarity and insight.
Julia combines legal expertise with a deep understanding of the emotional and relational dynamics that underpin family wealth and legacy. She describes her mediation style as that of an “empathetic provocateur”, bringing calm authority and appropriate challenge to help parties address difficult issues and reach workable outcomes all parties can live with.
Julia was shortlisted for Civil & Commercial Mediator of the Year at the 2022 National Mediation Awards.
Julia has mediated more than 150 inheritance, trust and estate-related disputes. Her experience includes mediating claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, will validity challenges, executor removal disputes, trust disputes (including disputes regarding accounts and the identity of trustees) and Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 disputes.
She helps families, HNW individuals, executors, trustees, charities and professional advisers, and works UK-wide in person and remotely.
Julia is regularly instructed in complex, multi-party disputes involving high net worth families. She offers co-mediation for complex or multi-party cases through www.inheritancecomediation.com, alongside fellow CEDR mediator, Oliver Hallam.
Julia continues to practise as a contentious probate solicitor (consultant at Merali Beedle, London), which ensures her mediation work is grounded in current litigation realities.
Estates & Beneficiaries, High Net Worth Individuals & Families, Private Wealth/Family Offices, Trustees & Executors, Charities, Professional Advisers
Specialised in contentious private client work as a Solicitor since 2007 and mediator since 2019.
Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS), Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (Affiliate Member), Association of Northern Mediators
Julia lives in Yorkshire with her family and their energetic Labrador, Rocco. Outside work, she enjoys the outdoors and spending much of her free time travelling around the country to support her two sporty children at tennis and netball. She believes that life is too short to live with conflict and brings that perspective to her mediation work.
Education:
School: Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks
LLB: University of East Anglia (Law & German Law) including a year abroad at Humboldt University, Berlin
Postgraduate Certificate: King’s College London
LPC: College of Law, London
Mediations:
- A multi-million pound, four-party dispute relating to estate accounts which had been ongoing for 10 years
- A six-party dispute relating to statutory will.
- A dispute arising from a murder of a mother by her son (with a mental health condition)
- A dispute arising from a double-suicide leaving a minor child and two adult children.
Co-mediations:
- a dispute between 10 siblings
- a dispute between 6 siblings
French and German (conversational)
Provided by Chambers
Julia Burns of Dove in the Room specialises in inheritance disputes, with a strong legal background in contentious trusts and probates. Burns's work ranges from multiparty to emotionally challenging disputes.
Provided by Chambers
Julia is skilled at knowing when to talk, when to hold back, when to listen and when to make suggestions. Her strengths are reading the room, listening skills and empathy.
Julia is a very calm mediator. Clients tend to open up to her; she works hard on making that emotional connection and builds an excellent rapport.
Julia's approach is very user-friendly for both the solicitor and clients. She's strong on contested probates, TOLATA disputes and disputes involving siblings.
Julia is lovely to work with and so grounded and in tune with clients' emotions.
Julia has a way with clients that shows empathy and warmth. She is very well respected, particularly in the field of chancery work, and is familiar with client expectations.
Julia is skilled at knowing when to talk, when to hold back, when to listen and when to make suggestions. Her strengths are reading the room, listening skills and empathy.
Julia is a very calm mediator. Clients tend to open up to her; she works hard on making that emotional connection and builds an excellent rapport.
Julia's approach is very user-friendly for both the solicitor and clients. She's strong on contested probates, TOLATA disputes and disputes involving siblings.
Julia is lovely to work with and so grounded and in tune with clients' emotions.
Julia has a way with clients that shows empathy and warmth. She is very well respected, particularly in the field of chancery work, and is familiar with client expectations.