2012 Steering Committee

Robin Vos qualified as a solicitor in 1990 when he joined Macfarlanes. He became a partner in 1997.

Robin gives tax and estate planning advice to UK and overseas individuals. Much of his work has an international element. He specialises in the creation of cross-border international asset holding vehicles, often working with overseas professionals, particularly in the US and Europe to design structures which will meet conflicting objectives of a number of jurisdictions. In the UK , he frequently advises entrepreneurs and senior executives. Robin's work also involves giving advice to trustees (both in the UK and elsewhere) in relation to their duties and responsibilities.

Robin has lectured in the UK , continental Europe and North America . He is editor of the UK section of Lawrence 's International Personal Tax Planning Encyclopaedia. He is also a member of the International Committee of the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners and of the Law Society's Wills & Equity Committee.

Members

Jeremy P. Arnold Kedge Capital Services Ltd. London

Mr Arnold is General Counsel of Kedge Capital based in London. He is also a special adviser to Barclays Wealth. He has over 20 years of experience in the trust and estate business working with high net worth individuals and family offices both in the UK and internationally. He joined from the leading international law firm Withers LLP, where he was a partner for 16 years and where he spear-headed the international expansion of the firm into New York and Geneva. He is a member of the International Committee of STEP (the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners). He has contributed as author and editor to some of the leading precedent books in the field of trusts.

Mary Anne Bueschkens is a leading trusts and estates practitioner who regularly advises her private clients on the taxation, establishment, and administration of domestic and offshore trusts and estates. She also advises her private clients on business succession planning, strategic business growth, the establishment and ongoing operations of charities and not-for-profit corporations, and tax-effective immigration and emigration planning. She is a member of Heenan Blaikie's National Tax Group and represents them on the National Management Committee.

As counsel to private clients, businesses, investment groups, trust companies, philanthropists, and institutional and individual trustees and fiduciaries in the estates, trusts, tax planning and charities areas, Mary Anne is often involved in multi-jurisdictional legal and tax issues, and is known for having particular specialization in this area as well as for having access to a broad network of professionals, both domestic and international, for all of the planning related needs of her clients.

Mary Anne is also involved in advising the boards of privately held companies and assists in co-ordinating and advising on succession planning and strategic planning, including acquisitions, divestitures and global expansion.

Mary Anne is consulted on in the area of contentious and non-contentious estate litigation matters and mediation, both for private clients and for corporate trustees. In addition, she assists her clients with the preparation of domestic contracts and with onshore and offshore asset protection structures as part of an overall succession plan.

Mary Anne has written and lectured extensively in the area of estate, tax and trust planning and administration, on both domestic and international issues, for the Canadian and Ontario Bar Associations, the Canadian Tax Foundation, The Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She has published papers in The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law as well as in Canadian and international publications. Mary Anne is former Chair of STEP Toronto, is current Deputy-Chair of STEP Canada, and is an elected Academician in the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.

Mary Anne is recognized as a leading trusts and estates practitioner in the 2011 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada (Woodward/White) and in Euromoney’s 2011 Guide to the World’s Leading Trust & Estate Practitioners. She is also Chair of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Background

Expertise

Publications & Speaking Engagements

Bar Admissions

Manuel Liatowitsch is a partner in our Dispute Resolution Group and heads our Private Clients Group in Zurich. He acts as counsel in commercial disputes before Swiss courts and international arbitral tribunals and also as an arbitrator. He further advises private clients and entrepreneurs in Switzerland and abroad on all aspects of estate and succession planning, business matters, private banking, philanthropy and in inheritance disputes.

In 1997, Manuel Liatowitsch graduated summa cum laude from the University of Basel before serving as a legal secretary to the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland. He subsequently was a Visiting Fellow with Yale University’s International Security Studies. In 2001 he received his doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Basel and then worked as a foreign associate with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. After joining our firm as an associate in 2003 he became a partner in 2008.

He has authored and co-authored various publications, including a leading Swiss text book on private international law and international litigation. He is a lecturer in private international law at the University of Zurich and a frequent conference speaker. Manuel Liatowitsch is a Co-Chair of ASA below 40 (the Swiss Arbitration Associations’ young practitioners group), Vice-Chair of the International Arbitration Committee of the American Bar Associations’ International Section and also a Vice-Chair of its International Private Client Committee. He is a member of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law.

Christopher Potter was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and was educated in England and France. He has an LLB from King's College London as well as a Master of Law degree and a DEA post-graduate degree from the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

Chris was formerly a tax partner with Jones Day's Paris office, specialising in French and international taxation, cross-border investments and leveraged acquisitions. He also advised clients on real estate investments and the formation and structure of investment funds, including issues relating to the taxation of carried interest entitlements and other equity incentives. Chris has extensive experience in the international taxation issues faced by high net wealth individuals, including the taxation of trusts in France.

Chris is currently senior counsel at SETE in Geneva.

As Head of Private Wealth Solutions, Bernard has overall global responsibility for HSBC’s trust, family wealth structuring and administration activities.  Private Wealth Solutions has over 900 staff in 22 locations.

Bernard, a former lawyer, has extensive experience in trust, tax and wealth structuring, corporate and family governance, corporate finance and financial markets.  He is a past Chairman of the Hong Kong Trustees' Association, founding Chairman of the Hong Kong Branch of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, has served as member of the Financial Services Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council and presently serves on the advisory boards of a number of public and private charitable and philanthropic foundations.
 
Career Path
Read Law at University of Canterbury, Christchurch.
Admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.
Partner in private legal practice in New Zealand.
Financial markets regulator in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Company Secretary/General Counsel for listed energy company.
Asia Pacific Head of Bank of Bermuda's Private Wealth Services.
Managing Director, Asia, Private Wealth Solutions since 2004.
CEO and Global Head, Private Wealth Solutions since 2009.

John Riches is a senior Principal in the Wealth Planning group of Withers LLP. John is a specialist in estate and capital tax planning for UK and non-UK domiciled individuals and has a particular focus in advising on fiduciary issues in the context of corporate transactions. He acts for a number of international family offices and trust companies for whom he typically co-ordinates complex cross-border projects. John is presently Deputy Chair of the STEP worldwide and was very involved in the lobbying which resulted in significant amendments being made to the Finance Act 2006 which lessened the negative tax changes to UK trusts. John is ranked amongst the first tier of leading trust and tax lawyers in London and serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Family Business. He is also a fellow of the International Academy of Trust and Estate Lawyers.

Joshua S. Rubenstein handles a wide variety of private client matters on a local, national, and international level, including personal and estate planning, the administration of estates and trusts, and contested Surrogate's Court and tax proceedings for high net worth individuals, professionals, entrepreneurs, artists and others with unique intellectual property interests, and is a frequent lecturer and author on these topics.  He is an Academician, Member of the Executive Council and Treasurer of the International Academy of Estates and Trusts Law (IAETL), a Fellow and Regent of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC), a Member of the U.K.-based Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), and a Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation.  He is a former chair of the Trusts & Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and of the International Committee of the Real Property and Probate Section of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Rubenstein is an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School and is the author of the LexisNexis Answer Guide on New York Surrogate's Court Practice.  He is often featured or quoted in prominent publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Crains, Bloomberg, the New York Law Journal, the Washington Post and Citywealth.  He is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the World and Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business at the Band One level for the Eastern Region in Wealth Management, Lawdragon's 3000 Leading Lawyers in America , and has been named as one of the "Best Lawyers in New York" by New York Magazine; one of the "Best Lawyers in America" by American Lawyer; one of the "Top 100 New York Super Lawyers" in New York Super Lawyers — Manhattan Edition; one of the "Top 100 U.S. Attorneys" by the Robb Report, Worth Magazine; one of the "Top 100 International Wealth Advisors" by Citywealth (a U.K. weekly); and one of the "Top 100 Americas Wealth Advisors," in connection with which he was named one of the "Top Ten International Wealth Advisors," in connection with he was named "U.S. Private Client Attorney of the Year," also by Citywealth.

G. Warren Whitaker, a Partner in the Individual Clients Department, focuses his practice on complex domestic and international estate planning and related income tax, corporate and personal planning for high net worth individuals and multinational families.

Warren is the former Chair of the Trusts and Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association, a past Chair of the Section’s International Estate Planning Committee and Estate Administration Committee, and a former District Representative. He is a fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC) and its International Estate Planning Committee. He is a member of the Estate and Gift Tax Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and former Vice Chair of the Committee on International Planning for Foreign Property Owners of the American Bar Association. Warren is currently U.S. Chair of the U.K.-based Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP) and a member of the STEP Worldwide Council. He has written extensively in leading publications such as Trusts and Estates, Probate and Property and Estate Planning, and has lectured around the world on estate planning and administration topics. He is the author of Estate Planning for Foreign Persons, Trusts and Assets, published in 1999 by Commerce Clearing House, and co-author of the “United States” section of Tolley’s Succession Laws.

Warren is a graduate of Rutgers College, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and an editor of the Journal of Transnational Law. He has served on the boards of several nonprofit organizations including the Pelham Art Center and Picture House Regional Film Center in Westchester County. He is on the board of Shakespeare’s Globe USA, which supports the Globe Theater in London, and is a member of the Bankers and Lawyers Advisory Committee to the New York Philharmonic and the Lawyers Advisory Board of Blythedale Children’s Hospital.

Warren was chosen several times for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, The New York Area Best Lawyers, Worth’s Top 100 Attorneys for Affluent Americans and the Citywealth (London) Top 100 Wealth Advisors. He was named one of the top wealth management attorneys in Chambers USA and Chambers Global Guides.