Withers Worldwide

Overview

Natasha acts for private individuals, charities and other domestic and international institutions in a variety of different types of trust and succession disputes and Court of Protection matters.

She advises on all aspects of the validity of wills, including claims of undue influence to disputed capacity, and actions brought under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, and issues of construction and rectification.

She also advises in relation to proceedings before the Court of Protection, including acting for applicants and respondents in applications for statutory wills, lifetime gifts, contested registration, and Power of Attorney, and has experience of professional negligence cases in the context of estate planning and trust administration.

Highlights

• In Burgess v Hawes, reported at [2012] WTLR 423, Natasha and Paul Hewitt acted for the successful claimants in overturning a purported will of their late mother's and securing recovery of lifetime transfers in favour of their sister and her immediate family. Click here to view our briefing or visit the Daily Telegraph article.
• In Clark v World Wildlife Fund and others reported at [2011] WTLR 961 Natasha and Paul Hewitt represented the charities who successfully argued that English law governs the validity of a will dealing with English immovable property (thus confirming the rule in Dicey for the first time). The court also held that England rather than Alabama is the appropriate forum for the dispute, despite the testatrix's nephew, Mr Clark, having obtained letters of administration in Birmingham County, Alabama.

Publications and speaking engagements

• Contributor to the quarterly legal update for the Institute of Legacy Management
• Spoke at the Legacy Labyrinth (January and February 2011)

Memberships

• Student Member of Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists
• The Charity Law Association

On a personal note

Before joining Withers, Natasha lived in Bratislava, Slovakia and worked as a paralegal for an international law firm.