Tuesday February 25, 2020
Wednesday February 26, 2020
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM | Four Seasons Hotel welcome arrival, check in and leisure time
6:15 PM - 7:00 PM | Welcome drinks
7:00 PM - 7:05 PM | Welcome from the co-chairs
Dakis Hagen KC - Serle Court
Nicholas Holland - McDermott Will & Emery
7:05 PM - 7:45 PM | Litigation and exotic assets: Cars, carats, cabernet, crypto and cannabis stocks
This welcome session debates which trust investment, across a range of exotic assets, poses the greatest risk of litigation. What specialist features will such litigation have?
Joshua Rubenstein - Katten Muchin Rosenman
Jonathan Speck - Mourant Ozannes
Alasdair Davidson - Bedell Cristin
7:45 PM - 9:00 PM | Welcome dinner
Thursday February 27, 2020
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM | Legitimate children, trusts and human rights
In the light of the incorporation of European human rights principles into the constitutions of many offshore jurisdictions, this session examines how long-hallowed certainties in the interpretation of trusts and testamentary instruments are being revolutionised by constitutional prohibitions against non-discrimination.
Rod Attride-Stirling - ASW Law
John Machell QC - Serle Court
Mark Lindley - Boodle Hatfield LLP
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM | Sub-strata of trusts – a new line of attack?
- Assessing the inherent limits to trustee powers
- Can trustees achieve anything they like if they have powers of amendment, coupled with addition and removal powers?
- What are the litigation risks of planners becoming drunk on decanting?
Fozeia Rana-Fahy - MJM Limited
Elspeth Rice QC - XXIV Old Buildings
Carlos de Serpa Pimentel - Appleby
Nikki Singla QC - Wilberforce Chambers
9:45 AM - 10:45 AM | Are anti-Bartlett clauses of any use?
- Zhang Hong Li and another v DBS (Hong Kong) Ltd and others appeal: Anti Bartlett clauses and their future
- How should trustees be looking to protect themselves?
- Permission to appeal (on everything?)
- Proper approach to equitable compensation
- Can a court give a gloss to an expert opinion?
Anthony Poulton - Baker McKenzie
Shan Warnock-Smith KC - ICT Chambers/5 Stone Buildings
Keith Robinson - Carey Olsen
10:45 AM - 11:15 AM | Networking break
11:15 AM - 12:00 PM | Comparative law treatment of trusts on divorce
Comparing and contrasting recent cases from England, the USA, Hong Kong, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia, as to whether Family Judges are finally giving respect to trusts on divorce.
Mark Harper - Hughes Fowler Carruthers
Tina Wüstemann - Bär & Karrer AG
Andrea Moja - SLCLEX
Christen Douglas - McDermott Will & Emery LLP
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Revocable trusts and beneficiary standing
Revocable trusts and beneficiary standing
This breakout focuses on the cross-jurisdictional differences in how we approach revocable trusts and beneficiary standing, with the different approaches across the UK and US.
Andrew De La Rosa - ICT Chambers
Robert Christie Christie - Dickinson Gleeson
Nicholas Le Poidevin - New Square Chambers
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Insolvent trusts: Where are we with Z Trusts and are there more insolvent trusts than we think?
Insolvent trusts: Where are we with Z Trusts and are there more insolvent trusts than we think?
- Impact of the recent CA decision in Z Trusts
- Do recent onshore tax changes mean that there are more insolvent trusts than we think?
Joanna Caen - Carey Olsen
Emma Jordan - Taylor Wessing LLP
James Rivett - Pump Court Tax Chambers
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Navigating the equitable remedy maze in the post Watson v Kea era
Navigating the equitable remedy maze in the post Watson v Kea era
- When to apply for an account and in what form
- How to boost your quantum after Watson v Kea
Jeremy Gordon - Farrer & Co
Emilia Piskorz - Mishcon de Reya LLP
Steven Elliott QC - Chambers of Lord Grabiner QC
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Trustees: Claimant, investigator and prisoner?
Trustees: Claimant, investigator and prisoner?
- How do trustees manage fraud claims under civil fraud litigation and what is the impact?
- What is the correlation with criminal proceedings?
Sue Millar - Stephenson Harwood LLP
Addy Schmitt - Miller & Chevalier
Robin Rathmell - Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP
Brian Lacy - Ogier
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM | Lunch
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: International family provision claims
International family provision claims
- The impact of family provision claims across different jurisdictions, including issues surrounding the domicile of the deceased
Henry Hickman - Sinclair Gibson
Graeme Kleiner - Charles Russell Speechlys LLP
Michael Cash - Penningtons
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Bermuda’s s. 47 regime
Bermuda’s s. 47 regime
- The rights of beneficiaries when altering the terms of trusts
- Can you use Section 47 in a divorce or planning context, including the expediency test?
- Exporting trusts across jurisdictions, including the impact of non-traditional families
- The view from other jurisdictions: challenges to moving trusts to Bermuda where trustees cannot do what they want under the governing law
James Price - Stewarts
Jeffrey Elkinson - Conyers
Jeremy Kosky - Clifford Chance LLP
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Cross jurisdictional privilege: Under attack?
Cross jurisdictional privilege: Under attack?
- Navigating ranging privilege rules, from the German Volkswagen case, to France’s “off the record” rules and more.
Johannes Gasser - Gasser Partner Rechtsanwälte
Roberta Harvey - Forsters
Andreas Richter - POELLATH
Morven McMillan - Maples and Calder
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM | Interactive Focus Groups: Rusnano v Molard: Are you still protected? Tax & trustee obligations
Rusnano v Molard: Are you still protected? Tax & trustee obligations
- Has the offshore world departed from the onshore world when it comes to the beneficiaries right to terminate trusts?
- The extent and limits of the rule in Saunders v Vautier
Jonathan Arr - Macfarlanes LLP
Rupert Morris Morris - Walkers
Marco Cerrato - Maisto
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM | Keynote: In conversation with... The Rt Hon Lord (Charles) Falconer
4:00 PM - 7:00 PM | Leisure time
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM | Champagne reception
8:00 PM - | Gala Dinner
Friday February 28th, 2020
9:40 AM - 9:45 AM | Opening remarks from co-chairs
Dakis Hagen KC - Serle Court
Nicholas Holland - McDermott Will & Emery
9:45 AM - 11:30 AM | "Off the record" - the client’s view: What are the experiences and fears of trustees embroiled in, or trying to avoid, international trust litigation?
- Assisted dying – what are the risks for estates?
- Filming the elderly/infirm when preparing wills – good idea or a gift to litigators?
- Aggressive lawyers – are they effective or just disturbed?
- When is a LOW too old to be relied upon
- Long in the tooth trustees & protectors & other advisers: who are they hanging around for – the beneficiaries or themselves?
Stella Mitchell-Voisin - Summit Trust International SA
Rupert Ticehurst - Maurice Turnor Gardner
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM | Networking break
12:00 PM - 12:50 PM | Pakistan v Prince Mukkaram Jah & Ors
Alleged acts of state, gun-running, geo-politics, the fall of the Raj and a great dynasty come together in this extraordinary episode of trust litigation in which judgment was given in London in 2019.
Paul Hewitt - Withers LLP
Eason Rajah KC - Ten Old Square
12:50 PM - 1:50 PM | Lunch
1:50 PM - 2:30 PM | Jurisdiction clauses in trust instruments
This session considers recent offshore case law on the construction and effects of jurisdiction, forum for administration and arbitration clauses; and the roles of the court in supporting and supervising arbitral proceedings and foreign courts. It then considers the future of English trusts jurisdiction clauses in the light of the current Brexit negotiations
Rachael Reynolds KC - Ogier
Brian Simms QC - Lennox Paton
Professor Jonathan Harris QC Hon - Serle Court
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM | My court process is better than yours
Panellists have 5 minutes to pitch against the clock as to whether their jurisdiction’s court process is better than others:
- The availability of expedited judicial processes to trust and estate matters; what has worked, what has not and what the future may hold?
- Comparing processes such as: robust summary judgement, broad rights of disclosure, disclosure witness evidence, legal professional privilege, rights of amendment, pleadings, summary judgment rules, oral deposition, transparency of court records
Daniel Dochylo - Borden Ladner Gervais
Sandrine Giroud - LALIVE SA
Claire Goldstein - Harney Westwood & Riegels
Damian James - Collas Crill
Adam Streisand - Sheppard Mullin
Elliott Phillips - Signature Litigation
3:00 PM - 3:15 PM | Co-chairs' closing comments
Dakis Hagen KC - Serle Court
Nicholas Holland - McDermott Will & Emery