Bio
Sarah is a Disputes Senior Associate.
Sarah advises executors, trustees, beneficiaries or other interested parties on all manner of disputes arising in relation to wills, estates, trusts and inheritance issues. She often handles disputes arising in the estates of high-net-worth individuals, sometimes comprising assets in family-owned businesses and real estate. She supports individuals through navigating disputes arising at an already difficult time by focusing on achieving a positive outcome as swiftly as possible.
She provides advice in situations where the validity of wills might be challenged, where a will does not reasonably provide for an individual, or where trustees’ decisions are being challenged.
Sarah also acts for SMEs, particularly family-run partnerships or businesses, in relation to contract disputes, contested debt, and partnership and company disputes. Sarah helps businesses to identify a solution-driven strategy to tackle such disputes with clarity, and to protect their commercial interests.
Sarah advises commercial clients in relation to rating disputes, or contested business rates.
Examples of Sarah’s work include:
- Representing a surviving spouse in an Inheritance Act claim where a blended family gave rise to several competing claims for relief against the estate. The claim was settled at mediation, enabling the client to continue to enjoy a high standard of living and fund the personalised medical care they required in later life.
- Successfully challenging the validity of a will on the basis of fraud on the part of a beneficiary.
- Taking steps to prevent the grant of probate in an estate where there was a challenge to the validity of the will, allowing the client leverage and time to air a dispute properly, and negotiate a positive outcome that saw her benefitting from a share of the sale of estate property.
- Securing a six-figure settlement of an Inheritance Act claim and TOLATA claim in difficult personal circumstances, meaning our client was able to maintain a stable family home for her children who had lost a parent unexpectedly.