James Ayliffe QC

Private Client CV

James acts on a wide variety of contentious trusts and estates matters. 

Some representative matters include:-

• acting for judgment creditor seeking to "break open" a trust structure so as to enforce against hundreds of millions of pounds of assets transferred into trust by the judgment debtor;
• acting for trustees of Jersey property unit trust in dispute as to priority of their rights of indemnity and associated lien against trust propert;
• acting for trustee facing multi-million pound claim based on allegations of wide-ranging breaches of trust in relation to his dealings with trust property comprising shares in a real estate company;
• advising in relation to high-profile dispute between Russian "oligarchs" involving challenges to validity of trust arrangements;
• advising well-known firm of solicitors facing multi-million pound claim arising out of "failure" of Beddoe application;
• advising beneficiaries of family trust regarding potential claim against trustees for breaches of duty in management of trust assets and other matters;
• acting for a wealthy individual seeking to set aside trusts set up for the purpose of mitigating tax and to claim damages and an account of "secret profits" from the advisers involved in setting up the trusts;
• advising settlor regarding proceedings for avoidance of a multi-million pound Bermudan trust on grounds of mistake;
• acting for well-known firm of solicitors in the successful defence of wide-ranging claims by a beneficiary in relation to their conduct of earlier trust litigation;
• acting for Hong Kong bank in proceedings to set aside a multi-million pound "sham" trust arrangements set up to avoid creditors.