Clarke Willmott expands private capital team with two new partners

By Peter Davison

10 August 2023

Share

The Business Magazine article image for: Clarke Willmott expands private capital team with two new partners

Claire Johnson and Philip Whitcomb

Bristol law firm Clarke Willmott LLP has expanded its private capital team with the appointment of new partners Claire Johnson and Philip Whitcomb.

Claire Johnson joins the Bristol office with nearly 30 years of legal and tax experience. Prior to her recent family move to the Bristol area, Claire had long been recognised as a leading individual in the Welsh private client market.

She is known for combining technical skill with an empathetic approach to advising families wanting to pass wealth on in a measured and protected way, as well as minimising the burden of inheritance tax.

Claire also regularly advises business owners, working closely with corporate colleagues and other professionals to provide a joined-up approach to business succession and personal planning.

Claire said: “I am delighted to have taken up a partner role at Clarke Willmott which has an enviable reputation, regionally and nationally, for the strength of its wealth and succession planning offering. It’s great to be working alongside such a lovely team with fantastic breadth and depth of experience."

Philip Whitcomb has joined the Taunton office as a partner within the private capital team. He acts for a large number of farmers and landowners and specialises in advising on succession planning and the structuring of farm businesses.

He deals with all aspects of Wills, capital tax planning, trusts and farming partnerships; advice which requires a high level of technical knowhow combined with commercial acumen.

Philip is a Fellow of the Agricultural Law Association, a member of the Country Land and Business Association and ranked in Legal 500, Chambers and Spears’ 500. He regularly lectures nationally to professionals on capital taxation, Wills, trusts and farming business structures.

Visit Hampshire Biz News for bright, upbeat and positive business news from the county

Philip said: “I am excited to join the private capital team at Clarke Willmott which has seen impressive growth and success in recent years. I am well placed to support the firm’s farming clientele and look forward to getting started.”

Anthony Fairweather, managing director of the private client division at Clarke Willmott, said: “It’s great to be expanding our team with two new partners across two of our regional offices. Both Claire and Philip join with extensive experience and I’m sure their knowledge, professionalism and commitment will be of great benefit to our clients.”

Clarke Willmott’s private client team is one of the most extensive and experienced in the UK. Made up of specialists in all areas of private wealth law including estate and succession planning, Court of Protection, family law, residential property and dispute resolution - the team provides an integrated legal service to clients.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.