Dawn Goodman
Senior counsel
Dawn is senior counsel in the trust, estate and inheritance disputes team.
Dawn has a wealth of experience litigating and working proactively with wealth-holding structures across the trust world, Europe, South America, Russia & CIS and the Middle East. She is tri-qualified (England & Wales, BVI and Eire) and acts in and advises on litigation spanning the whole range of trust and probate or estate and cross border succession issues. Once a problem has arisen she advises on ways to defuse contention, risk mitigation and alternative dispute resolution as well as on proceedings if necessary, ranging from consensual or prophylactic litigation to the most hostile of cross-border and multi-jurisdiction cases. As a recognised expert in this area, she co-authored Probate Disputes and Remedies, 3rd Edition, Jordan Publishing, a clear and practice guide to resolving contentious probate disputes.
Dawn is CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution) accredited and is on the ACTAPS (Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists) panel of mediators. She has represented trustees, executors, beneficiaries and heirs in mediations to resolve probate and estate administration disputes, international succession claims and a wide variety of English and international trust disputes; she has also participated as a party to a mediation. Her experience inspired Dawn to become a mediator. She believes passionately in the benefits of mediation not only as a swift and efficient way of resolving a dispute but also because it give the parties the opportunity to explore a range of options to settle their differences in a way which minimises damage to family and other relationships.
Previously a divorce lawyer, she also advises trustees and beneficiaries caught up in divorce proceedings. She is co-editor with Mark Harper of International Trust and Divorce Litigation, 3rd Edition, Jordan Publishing.
Garnering her experience as a litigator and fiduciary, including for a UNHW family, Dawn advises families, family offices and businesses, trustees and other power holders on governance as well as reduction and management of fiduciary risk. She applies her understanding of conflicts of laws, geopolitical risk, family tensions and succession to wealth and businesses to help clients create or restructure robust trust and succession vehicles with sufficient flexibility to continue through to succeeding generations.
Dawn is recognised across legal directories for her expertise, ranked as a star individual for private wealth disputes in Chambers HNW and listed in the Hall of Fame for contentious trust and successions disputes in Legal 500.
Track record
Admissions
Publications
Memberships
Talks
Dawn acted with Sarah Aughwane in the trustee accounting case of Henchley v Thompson [ 2017] EWHC 225 (Ch), advising successful beneficiaries in their claim against the trustee of a family trust for an account dating back over 40 years.
In the New York case of Naxos Art Inc v Zoullas No 16 Civ 7269 (JFK) (S.D.N.Y. Jul 7, 2017), Dawn advised a trust company while Dean Nicyper and Peter Wood acted in the recovery of misappropriated art worth millions of dollars from a custodian.
In the matter of the K Trust, Guernsey Judgment 31/2015, Dawn worked alongside Guernsey advocates and Counsel to advise 11 of 14 adult beneficiaries on an application - the first in Guernsey - seeking removal of a protector whose approach was no longer considered to be in the best interests of the beneficiaries. The Royal Court established the test in Guernsey for removal of protectors and dealt with incidental issues, such as specific indemnities, to which it considered the protector was not entitled in the absence of indemnity provisions in the trust deed.
England and Wales, 1980
British Virgin Islands, 2008
Irish Practicing Certificate, 2019
CEDR accredited mediator, 2020
‘To reserve or not to reserve? What can possibly go wrong – Part II’‘ in Trusts & Trustees, Vol 26, issue 6 - July 2020
‘International Trust and Divorce Litigation’ (3rd Edition) (Co-author and co-editor), Jordans – 2019
‘To reserve or not to reserve? That is the question – Part I’‘ in Trusts & Trustees, Vol 25, No 10 - December 2019
Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)
Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS)
‘The impact of divorce on trustees and beneficiaries’, ThoughtLeaders4 Virtual conference – July 2020
‘Troubleshooting in the Trust World’ – Church House Investment Management – November 2019
‘Trustees and the Family Business’, STEP Essex – October 2019
En resumen sobre mí
I wished to become an opera singer.
Educación
Idiomas
- English