Simon Goldring

I focus on disputes involving trusts, wills and estates, commercial disputes including fraud, partnership and minority shareholder actions, tax litigation, misrepresentation, fraud and areas of marital law such as pre- and post-nuptial agreements. My practice has developed from my private client background, enabling me to approach litigation from a client-centric perspective.

I have considerable experience in advising on corporate transactions, wealth planning and trust matters for a wide range of clients, which include individuals, trustees, beneficiaries, protectors, charities and corporate entities. I also administered a UK trust corporation for a number of years and have acted as in-house counsel providing primarily commercial contracts advice.

I am the co-founder of ConTrA (the Contentious Trusts Association), which I co-founded in 2015 and now has in excess of 750 members. I also chair the Trusts in Litigation annual conference, which is one of the leading Contentious Trusts conferences, and I am chairing the TransTrusts annual Private Wealth conference in 2024.

I am a CEDR accredited mediator and continue to be ranked by Chambers & Partners (HNW) and by Legal 500 for my Private Wealth Disputes expertise. I have also been listed in Legal Week’s Private Client Global Elite since its inception.

I am a football fanatic and still manage to play 11-a-side each week (although my knees are starting to have other ideas!).

• Acting for the Respondents before the Privy Council in relation to the estate of a senior Qatari royal and his $1 billion estate, having acted at both first instance and on appeal (Sheikha Amena Ahmed H.A. Al-Thani et al v Sheikha Aisha Mohammed Ali Abdullah Al Thani et al BVIHCVAP2021/0001).
• Acting for King Ogiame III in a dispute regarding the estate of his father-in-law Captain Idahosa Wells Okunbo, a wealthy Nigerian businessman who was worth in excess of $1 billion.
• In the matter of the “R” Trusts (Rothschild Switzerland (CI) Trustees Limited & Ors v W & Ors) [Guernsey] relating to the admissibility of without prejudice material in a Public Trustee v Cooper application.
• D v A, B & C & Ors [2020] GCA 065 in the Court of Appeal of Guernsey dealing with the rules on construction of a trust deed, in particular whether a beneficiary’s power to appoint was a personal or fiduciary power.
• Operating a virtual family office offering for a UHNW family and ensuring proper trustee decision making and reviewing investment documentation. In addition to operating the trust, sitting as a board observer in a number of the venture capital companies invested in by the trust, overseeing the investments.