Osborne Clarke (OC) has relaunched a dedicated private wealth practice with an emphasis on international high-net-worth (HNW) individuals and families after over a year of restructuring the division following partner exits.

The firm has hired partners Stuart Janaway and Andrew Goodman to lead the practice which opened today (19 January). They will serve the firm's clients across OC's offices worldwide. New appointments will follow throughout 2015

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The practice will provide the full range of private client advice, including international tax and estate planning, immigration, property advice and, when needed, litigation support.

Goodman (right) joins OC after over 15 years working for Taylor Wessing, where he became a partner in its private client group, specializing in personal tax, UK and offshore trusts, investment structures, charities and trust litigation. He left Taylor Wessing on Friday.

stuart-janaway-osborne-clarke-2white-spacerJanaway (left) joins from a boutique private client firm, New Quadrant Partners, where he was a partner for nearly three years. He left the firm on Friday. Previously, he worked as director of US investment management company AllianceBernstein for nearly five years. He was head of its UK private client business and built up a strong US private client base.

Ray Berg, OC's UK managing partner, said: Ray Berg, UK managing partner at OC said the new practice would target US clients but added that there was no single target jurisdiction and that it was appealing to a broad base of clients worldwide:

"The sorts of clients we are acting for are more international in outlook and just require a different range of services such as international tax affairs which are increasingly complex."

 

The firm first announced its intentions to create a small private wealth practice focused on international HNWs in late 2013 after its existing Bristol-based private client team, which worked on estates planning, trusts and traditional estates, jumped ship for Bond Dickenson.

Private client and charity law partner Mark Woodward and property partner Robert Drewett and their associated teams both left for Bond Dickenson in October 2013. Before that, OC's private client practice head Sandra Brown left for Michelmores.