About Mike
Mike is “highly recommended” by independent legal directory The Legal 500 UK 2019, who commented in 2017 that he “gives excellent and fair advice“. His team is also recommended by The Legal 500 UK in 2016 as it “achieves good results for its clients time and time again.”
Mike’s experience includes:
- challenges to the validity of Wills, including issues of:
capacity
undue Influence
execution
lack of knowledge and approval
- Court of Protection disputes
- claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975
- Prorietary Estoppel and Constructive Trusts
- problems relating to the administration of estates.
Memberships
- Full Member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists
- Full Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
Publications
Mike recently wrote an article for the Trusts & Estate Law and Tax Journal, reviewing a case which indicated that the courts would take a ‘common sense’ approach to construction and rectification. He explores the case of Millar v Millar [2018] which came before the Court in Bristol.
In another article for the Trusts & Estates Law and Tax Journal, Mike discusses the ‘Forfeiture Rule’. In this article, Mike reviews the extent to which the court can use its discretion to change the rule that prevents a killer from benefiting from the estate of someone they have unlawfully killed. He looks at the recent tragic case of Macmillan Cancer Support v Hayes [2018], which saw the court needing to consider this issue in the context of an elderly husband, who took his wife’s life, followed by his own, as both were suffering with serious illnesses and the husband did not wish his wife to see out her days in a care home.
