Hunters

Senior Partner: Henry Hood

Number of partners: 23

Number of senior associates: 11

Number of associates: 12

Number of other fee-earners: 15

Firm Overview

Hunters is known for combining top-class legal advice with exceptional, partner-led, personal service. Consistently ranked as one of London’s top firms, it serves a largely high net worth (HNW) client base of private individuals, trusts, landed estates, businesses, and charities. Situated in the heart of legal London, Hunters offers a range of specialist inter-linking services, allowing them to meet clients’ diverse legal needs. These services include wealth management, tax and estate planning, trust affairs, divorce and relationship breakdown, nuptial agreements, residential and commercial property, business services, philanthropy and litigation. Hunters’ partners are known for their approachability and work collaboratively to provide an efficient and integrated service. The firm has practised from its seventeenth-century premises in Lincoln’s Inn for nearly 300 years, a mark of its stability and permanence. This continuity is reflected in the lasting service given to clients, both old and new: a partner is personally responsible for every client and this relationship, often built up over many years and sometimes spanning multiple generations, is the cornerstone of the practice.

Main Areas of Practice

Private client:

The firm is best known for its long-standing expertise in acting for individuals, families and trustees. The private client department advises on all aspects of tax, trusts and succession planning for clients in the UK and further afield. The team has considerable experience in the administration of complex estates (often with an international element) and Court of Protection work. The firm also has an extensive landed estates practice, some of which are extremely high value and are held through complex structures involving partnerships, companies and trusts.

Family

The family team acts for largely HNW and ultra-high net worth (UHNW) clients on a full range of issues arising on relationship inception and breakdown. They offer particular expertise in complex financial claims on divorce, as well as wealth protection through nuptial agreements. The team is also experienced in advising on personal protection in situations of domestic abuse, arrangements for children, issues arising in cohabiting relationships, child abduction, child protection, surrogacy and fertility law.

Property

The well-established Residential and Commercial Property departments support clients and colleagues in the private client, family and business services teams, as property matters inevitably and regularly arise in those areas. The department also has a substantial independent practice handling all aspects of residential and commercial conveyancing and landlord and tenant matters. This includes homes, urban estates, investments, development, agriculture, rural property and landed estates. Additionally, they handle a wide range of secured lending and banking security work. Hunters is accredited by the Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS).

Business

Hunters' experienced Corporate & Commercial department acts for foreign and domestic investors, companies, partnerships and entrepreneurs. The team has particular expertise in advising the firm’s private clients on the corporate and commercial elements of their often sophisticated trust and close family structures. They also advise clients from numerous jurisdictions in relation to their UK activities, corporate transactions, day-to-day operational issues and regulatory legal requirements, including employment law, and commercial contracting. The team's clients can be at any stage of their business lifecycle, from start-up to listing and beyond. With extensive international experience, Hunters is well-positioned to advise domestic and foreign clients on their cross-border activities and the continuing challenges presented by Brexit and the pandemic. Their clients operate in various economic sectors with particular strengths in intellectual property and technology, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), foreign direct investment and art and cultural heritage. They regularly assist clients with corporate finance and investment agreements, business acquisition and disposal, stakeholder relations and corporate governance.

Charity and safeguarding

The firm has a well-established practice and reputation in charity law, providing discreet and pragmatic advice to an eclectic mix of charities, social enterprises and other not-for-profit organisations, including trade unions and international NGOs. The Charities department at Hunters covers everything from the formation of charities, governance and regulatory advice through to mergers and safeguarding support. It offers charity clients a multidisciplinary service that includes a full range of property, legacy and philanthropy, litigation, commercial and employment law services.

Dispute resolution

Hunters assists clients in resolving disputes across a broad range of civil matters, most notably all aspects of contentious trust and probate. Their clients include trustees, beneficiaries, executors and other interested parties. Much of the department’s work involves complex, high-value cross-border and multi-jurisdictional disputes for UK and overseas clients, often arising from relationship-generated trusts. The team uses a combination of negotiation, mediation, and when necessary, court action to achieve the best possible outcomes for their clients. They also regularly act in disputes relating to property, the Court of Protection, professional negligence, contracts, business relationships and art.