Events / Webinars
Wilberforce Jersey Conference 2024
Thursday 26th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Jersey
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
View moreMichael has a specialist practice focusing on trusts and estates, pensions, and professional liability matters. He appears regularly in the High Court and County Court, as sole counsel and as a junior, and is also an experienced mediation advocate. In recent years many of Michael’s instructions have had an international element, including in Jersey, Guernsey, Bermuda, the Isle of Man, and BVI.
Michael’s trusts and estates practice includes all aspects of litigation, advice and drafting relating to private, commercial and, offshore trusts, estates and cross-border succession, and related private client tax. His pensions practice builds on his trusts expertise, and encompasses both occupational and private pensions, as well as regulatory and ombudsman matters. Michael also has wide experience of professional liability disputes (both for claimant and defendant), typically arising in connection with trusts, estates and pension schemes, and including setting up domestic and offshore trust structures, and negligent tax advice.
Alongside his practice Michael also speaks and writes widely on the law of trusts, is lecturer in law at Somerville College, Oxford , and is the author of Trustee Decision Making: The Rule in Re Hastings-Bass. Before coming to the Bar, Michael spent six years as an academic in the law faculty of the University of Oxford, working on trustees’ powers and duties and remedies for breaches of trust, with a particular focus on Hastings-Bass and mistake claims, and teaching the law of trusts, land law, and Roman law.
Michael is ranked as a Leading Junior by Chambers & Partners for Chancery: Traditional, Trusts and Pensions and by The Legal 500 for Private Client: Trusts and Probate, Offshore, and Pensions. Michael was also recognised by the Legal Week Private Client Global Elite 2020 as “One to Watch”.
Trusts, probate and estates: contentious
Michael has a busy traditional chancery practice across all aspects of trusts, probate and estates, charities, and related aspects of private client tax. His experience encompasses advising, drafting trust documents, and litigating, in relation to domestic trust and estate matters as well as offshore trusts and cross-border estates (with recent offshore experience in Bermuda, Jersey and Guernsey). He is often instructed as sole counsel before the High Court, but also has substantial experience of acting as a mediation advocate, and is always pleased to achieve a negotiated settlement for clients who wish to avoid the cost, risk or publicity attendant upon litigation.
Michael also has wide experience of the varied matters which often arise in connection with trusts and estates, including advising on inheritance tax, constructive and resulting trusts, proprietary estoppel claims, and obtaining urgent interim relief such as proprietary injunctions.
Michael is ranked as a Leading Junior in Chambers and Partners (Chancery: Traditional and Trusts) and The Legal 500 (Private Client: Trusts & Probate, and Offshore). Michael was recognised by the Legal Week Private Client Global Elite 2020 as “One to Watch”.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Michael spent six years as a trusts law academic, as Fellow & Tutor in law at Somerville College, Oxford. He continues to write widely on the law of trusts, and his published work includes the first book on the so-called “rule in Re Hastings-Bass” following the decision of the Supreme Court in Pitt v Holt [2013] UKSC 26: Trustee Decision Making: The Rule in Re Hastings-Bass (OUP 2015), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on trustees’ powers and duties.
Michael’s trusts and charities experience includes:
Michael’s probate and estates experience includes:
Michael has particular experience of acting as sole counsel for both claimants and defendants under the Inheritance (Provision for Family of Dependants) Act 1975, including acting for common law spouses and both adult and minor children, in estates ranging from the very small to those exceeding £10 million.
He has appeared in the High Court in 1975 Act claims (in both the Chancery and Family divisions), but also has significant experience of settling such disputes via mediation and negotiation, and often appears as a mediation advocate. He also has experience of advising on the most complex 1975 Act claims where there is a substantial foreign element, and where the validity of marriages, civil partnerships and divorces (whether foreign or domestic) is called into question, where assets are held on complex trusts, or where pension rights are in issue (drawing on his extensive pensions practice).
Michael’s experience of claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family of Dependants) Act 1975 includes:
Michael’s tax experience includes:
Michael can explain the most complex trust issues clearly and cogently. His drafting skills are second-to-none. He is extremely bright, user-friendly and responsive.
Michael has encyclopedic knowledge of trusts law and is a very reliable source of information.
Just amazing. Michael is so bright but also just a delight to work with. He is already essentially a KC in terms of the quality of his work.
Michael is an outstanding performer. His knowledge of the law is second to none, his client skills are excellent and he is highly responsive. He is everything that an instructing solicitor could want.
The way that he is able to break down complex legal points into language that can be understood by clients is invaluable. His written work is also invariably detailed and immaculate.
Events / Webinars
Thursday 26th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Jersey
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
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Wednesday 25th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
The Old Government House Hotel & Spa, St Peter Port
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
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Tuesday 16th July 2024 | 8.30am - 9.45am
Wilberforce Chambers, Lincoln's Inn, London, WC2A 3QP
Free to attend | 1 CPD
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Thursday 4th July 2024 | 12.30pm - 5.25pm, followed by drinks and canapés
The View at The Royal College of Surgeons
£135 + VAT | 3.5 CPD
View moreTrusts, probate and estates: non-contentious
Michael’s traditional chancery practice encompasses all aspects of non-contentious litigation, drafting and advice across trusts, probate and estates (including cross-border estates), and related private client tax.
Michael is a full member (TEP) of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.
Michael is ranked as a Leading Junior in Chambers and Partners (Chancery: Traditional and Trusts) and The Legal 500 (Private Client: Trusts & Probate). Michael was recognised by the Legal Week Private Client Global Elite 2020 as “One to Watch”.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Michael spent six years as a trusts law academic, as Fellow & Tutor in law at Somerville College, Oxford. He continues to write widely on the law of trusts, and his published work includes the first book on the so-called “rule in Re Hastings-Bass” following the decision of the Supreme Court in Pitt v Holt [2013] UKSC 26: Trustee Decision Making: The Rule in Re Hastings-Bass (OUP 2015), as well as numerous articles and book chapters on trustees’ powers and duties.
Michael’s trust and estate drafting and advice experience includes:
Michael’s non-contentious litigation experience includes:
Michael’s private client tax experience includes:
Michael can explain the most complex trust issues clearly and cogently. His drafting skills are second-to-none. He is extremely bright, user-friendly and responsive.
Michael has encyclopedic knowledge of trusts law and is a very reliable source of information.
Just amazing. Michael is so bright but also just a delight to work with. He is already essentially a KC in terms of the quality of his work.
Michael is an outstanding performer. His knowledge of the law is second to none, his client skills are excellent and he is highly responsive. He is everything that an instructing solicitor could want.
The way that he is able to break down complex legal points into language that can be understood by clients is invaluable. His written work is also invariably detailed and immaculate.
Events / Webinars
Thursday 26th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Jersey
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
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Wednesday 25th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
The Old Government House Hotel & Spa, St Peter Port
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
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Tuesday 16th July 2024 | 8.30am - 9.45am
Wilberforce Chambers, Lincoln's Inn, London, WC2A 3QP
Free to attend | 1 CPD
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Monday 29th January 2024 | 9am - 5.35pm, followed by drinks and dinner
InterContinental Park Lane, London
£299 - £360 + VAT | 5.5 CPD
View morePensions
Michael has an extensive pensions practice , acting for both trustees and employers, as well as the Pensions Regulator and the Pensions Ombudsman. He is regularly instructed as sole counsel, and as part of a larger team, and his practice encompasses both litigation and non-contentious advice and drafting. He has appeared in important recent cases including British Airways v Airways Pension Scheme Trustee Ltd (both at the High Court trial and in the Court of Appeal), and the Silentnight regulatory case.
Michael is ranked as a leading junior in both Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500 for Pensions.
Matters of note include:
Just amazing. Michael is so bright but also just a delight to work with. He is already essentially a KC in terms of the quality of his work.
Michael is an outstanding performer. His knowledge of the law is second to none, his client skills are excellent and he is highly responsive. He is everything that an instructing solicitor could want.
The way that he is able to break down complex legal points into language that can be understood by clients is invaluable. His written work is also invariably detailed and immaculate.
Michael is incredibly bright with an irrepressible enthusiasm for the finer points of the law, which is combined with an engaging advocacy style almost unusual for someone so technical.
His drafting skills are second-to-none. He is extremely bright, user-friendly and responsive.
Events / Webinars
Wednesday 21st June 2023 | 12.30pm - 5.55pm, followed by drinks and dinner by Nobu
Nobu Shoreditch Hotel & Restaurant
£175 for conference & dinner / £125 for conference only | 3.5 CPD
View moreEvents / Webinars
Tuesday 28 June 2022 | 6.30pm - 7.30pm, followed by drinks
Ashworth Centre (and online via Zoom), Lincoln's Inn, London, WC2A 3TL
£75 + VAT | 1.0 CPD
View morePublications
Michael Furness KC | Jonathan Hilliard KC | David Pollard | Edward Sawyer | Thomas Robinson | Sebastian Allen | Jennifer Seaman | Michael Ashdown | Joseph Steadman | Caspar Bartscherer
June 2022
Recent Cases
Pensions
Paul Newman KC | Michael Ashdown
Monday 7 February 2022
Professional liability
Michael has wide experience of professional liability disputes, mostly arising out of the conduct of trustees (including pension trustees) and the professional advice they have obtained from solicitors and others. In particular, he has experience of acting for both claimants and defendant professionals in cases of alleged negligence in giving technical pensions advice and in advising on the tax aspects of setting up domestic and offshore trust structures, and in connection with the taxation of pensions.
His recent experience includes:
Just amazing. Michael is so bright but also just a delight to work with. He is already essentially a KC in terms of the quality of his work.
Michael is an outstanding performer. His knowledge of the law is second to none, his client skills are excellent and he is highly responsive. He is everything that an instructing solicitor could want.
The way that he is able to break down complex legal points into language that can be understood by clients is invaluable. His written work is also invariably detailed and immaculate.
Michael is incredibly bright with an irrepressible enthusiasm for the finer points of the law, which is combined with an engaging advocacy style almost unusual for someone so technical.
His drafting skills are second-to-none. He is extremely bright, user-friendly and responsive.
Events / Webinars
Thursday 13 February 2020
One Moorgate Place, Chartered Accountants' Hall, London EC2R 6EA
£75 + VAT | 3.0 CPD
View moreCommercial disputes
Michael has a busy practice in commercial, insolvency and business disputes, acting both in his own right and as part of a larger team, and for clients ranging from individuals to global businesses.
Michael’s experience includes:
Just amazing. Michael is so bright but also just a delight to work with. He is already essentially a KC in terms of the quality of his work.
Michael is an outstanding performer. His knowledge of the law is second to none, his client skills are excellent and he is highly responsive. He is everything that an instructing solicitor could want.
The way that he is able to break down complex legal points into language that can be understood by clients is invaluable. His written work is also invariably detailed and immaculate.
Michael is incredibly bright with an irrepressible enthusiasm for the finer points of the law, which is combined with an engaging advocacy style almost unusual for someone so technical.
His drafting skills are second-to-none. He is extremely bright, user-friendly and responsive.
Events / Webinars
Thursday 26th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Jersey
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
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Wednesday 25th September 2024 | 3.30pm - 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
The Old Government House Hotel & Spa, St Peter Port
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
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Thursday 4th July 2024 | 12.30pm - 5.25pm, followed by drinks and canapés
The View at The Royal College of Surgeons
£135 + VAT | 3.5 CPD
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Thursday 19th October 2023 | 3.30pm- 6.20pm, followed by a drinks reception
The Old Government House Hotel & Spa, St Peter Port
Free to attend | 2.0 CPD
View moreRegistered name: Mr Michael James Ashdown
VAT number: 195479256