Our market leading private client team in Birmingham welcomes three new hires

Catriona, who joins as a partner, will enhance our offering to UK-based business-owners and private clients, particularly in pre-sale tax planning. She will focus on the Birmingham and wider-Midlands market but also branch out nationally.

Catriona is an experienced private wealth lawyer and is dual qualified as a solicitor and chartered tax adviser. She joins the firm from Gateley Plc, where she was head of the private client team for over seven years. She’s a trusted advisor to a number of high-net-worth individuals and their families, with some of these relationships nurtured for over 15 years.

Catriona will be a key member of the firm’s mid-market team and help drive the focus on owner managed and family businesses. She will also operate in the firm’s food and beverage, automotive and technology sectors, where she will advise the owners of these businesses on their wealth and estate planning. She has extensive knowledge in preparing tax efficient wills and lifetime trusts; fulfilling philanthropic objectives through charitable trusts; acting as a professional trustee, attorney and deputy (in high value, complex cases) and providing personal tax advice with a particular focus on capital taxes.

Bhavini, senior associate, and Sarah, associate, have also joined the team from Gateley. The Birmingham private client team has now grown to 28 people, with more than 80 operating nationally.

Bhavini advises clients on a wide range of tax and estate succession planning to ensure family wealth is protected across the generations in the most efficient way. This includes putting in place wills and trusts, powers of attorney, guiding clients through complex inheritance tax, capital gains tax and income tax regimes and advising on various mental capacity issues.

Sarah has experience in the preparation of wills with suitable trust provisions to assist her clients with the preservation of family wealth for future generations, and obtaining probate for her clients. She assists with the preparation and registration of lasting powers of attorney. 

Matthew Hansell, partner and private client lawyer at Mills & Reeve, said: “I’m so glad to welcome Catriona, Bhavini and Sarah to the team. Catriona is a very highly regarded individual and I believe we’ll hugely benefit from her in-depth knowledge on capital taxes. With Bhavini and Sarah as well, we can enhance our position as the leading private client team in Birmingham.”

Catriona added: “I'm very much looking forward to joining my new team at Mills & Reeve, particularly in the Birmingham office where our services are well known and highly valued. I know Bhavini, Sarah and I can work effectively alongside our new colleagues to grow our practices in the region even more so than before.” 

John Grundy, partner and private client lawyer at Mills & Reeve, commented: “Our exceptional team continues to grow as we act for more of the Midlands’ wealthiest individuals and families. It’s a really exciting time for the team, with these new additions providing us with greater opportunities to collaborate with a number of the key sectors within the firm. Our new colleagues will further strengthen our talented team and enable us to provide first rate advice to even more clients in the future.”