Richard Wilson KC

Practice Areas

Richard Wilson KC has a practice encompassing litigation, drafting and advisory work across a wide range of traditional and commercial chancery, with a strong emphasis on trusts and probate (both contentious and non-contentious), related company and partnership law, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, tax, professional negligence, and civil fraud. He is ranked by Chambers & Partners as a leading silk in the fields of trusts, offshore, and traditional chancery work. Chambers UK describes him as a "Very commercial, practical and responsive." "He's just fantastically user-friendly - always at the end of the phone if you need him. He's also so good strategically."

Richard has been involved in many of the most significant and high-value cases in those areas in recent years, including: Futter v. Futter [2013] UKSC 26 (the leading case on the Rule in Re Hastings-Bass); Gany v Khan [2018] UKPC 21 (claim to establish ownership of companies by BVI trust and setting aside appointment by trustees); and the Dawson-Damer litigation (high-value breach of trust claim in The Bahamas with related litigation in England and Bermuda). He is currently acting for one of the parties in the Wong v Grand View litigation in both the trial in Bermuda of one of the actions and the appeal to the Privy Council in another.

Chambers and Partners High Net Worth says about Richard: “….[he] knows everything there is to know in this field of law, he's really one of the best," and is "absolutely fantastic," according to a source, who adds that he is "very down-to-earth and easy to get along with."

His work frequently involves offshore matters and issues of private international law. He has appeared in the Privy Council, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of Gibraltar, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of Bermuda, the Supreme Court of The Bahamas, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. He has also given expert evidence of English Law in the Royal Courts of Jersey and Guernsey. He frequently acts in cases in all of the principal offshore jurisdictions including those mentioned above and in an increasing number of cases in Hong Kong.

Career

Called to the Bar 1996. King's Counsel 2016.

Professional Memberships

Chancery Bar Association, ACTAPS, STEP, Professional Negligence Bar Association.

Publications

In 2020 Richard was invited by Solicitors Journal to consider the changes to private client and trusts law over the past 20 years. His article ‘A whole new world’ was published on 24 June 2020.

What to consider when looking at assisted suicide, FT Advisor, April 2019.

Relief from flawed decisions, Trusts and Estates Law & Tax Journal, November 2018, together with Alan Boyle KC and Zahler Bryan (Serle Court).

Richard writes extensively on subjects within his fields of expertise. He has had numerous articles published in journals such as Private Client Business, The Trusts and Estates Law and Tax Journal and Elderly Client Adviser. He is the co-author of ‘The Trustee Act 2000: a Practical Guide' (Jordans, 2001) and is currently co-writing the ‘Trust Litigation Handbook' which is due to be published by Jordans.

Richard is a former editor of the Trusts Quarterly Review, and is currently a member of the editorial boards of the Wills and Trusts Law Reports. He is also currently contributing to the latest edition of ‘Contentious Probate Claims’ (Thompson Reuters) and is the Consultant Editor of the ‘Trusts and Settlements’ volume of Halsbury’s Laws of England.

Personal

Richard read Law at the Universities of Sheffield (LLB) and London (LLM).

Awards