Steven Kempster

Partner | London

Steven is a partner in the trust and succession disputes team.

He specialises in the resolution of disputes relating to the formation or administration of trusts and estates in a UK and international context. Recent cases have included disputes relating to trusts and estates in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Switzerland, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Hong Kong, Singapore, Cayman Islands and Bermuda. He also advises on charity law matters, including dispute resolution where UK charities are involved.

Steven has been described by Chambers Global as ‘a ‘leading figure’ and ‘esteemed litigator’. In 2017 and 2018 Steven was nominated in Legal Weeks Private Client Global Elite of international advisers. In 2011, Steven was included in The Lawyer magazine’s annual ‘Hot 100’ list of lawyers ‘who have consistently demonstrated nimbleness and innovation over the last 12 months’.

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Secretary Hollie Geaney

+44 20 7597 6498
‘‘

I have worked closely with Withers for a number of years and they never fail to impress. Steven Kempster is quick, articulate and pragmatic – the advice and service received is first class. He is on top of the law, always one step ahead, and is both tactical and thorough when dealing with any case.

Harash Sethi, Accountant - Cornelius Barton & Co
‘‘

Steven Kempster acts on a range of UK and international trust disputes, and is described as ‘a safe pair of hands and a strong tactician .’

Chambers HNW 2017
‘‘

Steven acts for a range of high net worth clients on major domestic and international disputes, including charity matters. He finds sensible commercial solutions. He is highly communicative and his written work is as good as I’ve seen from any practising lawyer.

Chambers HNW 2017, London

Focus areas

Families and family offices

Beneficiaries and heirs

Elderly and vulnerable people

High-net-worth individuals

Trustees, executors and fiduciaries

Track record

Admissions

Publications

Memberships

Talks

We advised a beneficiary of a trust who was in dispute with another beneficiary and the trustee who was holding shares in a luxury fashion brand worth over €30 million. Court proceedings were ongoing in England and Italy, involving our London and Milan offices, before the trustee was successfully replaced and the other issues between the parties compromised in 2017 to avoid publicity over the businesses involved.

Advising a blue-chip offshore trust company on its involvement in English divorce proceedings concerning attacks on trusts worth over £25 million. We handled the disclosure issues for the trustee and eventually the case was concluded without the trustee being formally joined to the English proceedings.

Our lawyers brought the highest value Inheritance Act claim to date in Wooldridge v Wooldridge (2016). We were acting for a widow who sought to increase provision under her husband’s will after his death in a helicopter accident. The will had been ‘homemade’, written without legal advice, and our client felt that her husband had intended to leave her a greater share of his assets.

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England and Wales, 2000

Wealth Management Spotlight on Contentious Trusts, Spears Magazine, September 2017

Editor and contributing author to Oxford University Press’ International Trust Disputes

Contributing author to International Trust Precedents published by Longmans

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Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists

Charity Law Association

Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners

Panellist - ‘Wealthy families in dispute’, Private client dining club, London - May 2018

STEP, Hong Kong branch, lecture on ‘Trust and divorce’ - February 2018

‘Trust planning in divorce’, Isle of man conference - September 2017

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Education

University of Leeds, BA (Hons) in Political Studies
The College of Law, Diploma in Law

Languages

  • English

Dates

Joined

2014
Partner

2014

Recognition

London

20 Old Bailey,

London,

EC4M 7AN

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Insight

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