Matthew Watson

Matthew is an experienced trusts and estates litigator in demand with clients. He appears regularly in the High Court (Chancery Division) and in the appellate courts on contentious chancery matters. He has experience of all manner of proceedings, from breach of trust trials, contentious probate actions, removal applications, proceedings for accounts and urgent asset protection and recovery applications. Matthew has been instructed as counsel in some of the most legally significant and high profile English trust and estate disputes of the past decade, including Investec Trust (Guernsey) Ltd & Ors v Glenalla Properties Ltd [2018] UKPC 7 (conflicts of laws and trustees' liabilities); First Tower Trustees v CDS (Superstores International) Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 1396 (clauses limiting trustees' liabilities); Barnett v Creggy [2016] EWCA Civ 1004 (application of limitation act to claims against fiduciaries); and Bourke v Favre [2015] EWHC 277 (Ch) (high profile dispute about ownership of Chettle village). In addition to his domestic practice, Matthew has an established offshore trusts and estates practice. He is regularly retained by offshore firms to advise on complex disputes, with a particular focus on trust disputes in the Channel Islands. His private client practice is, however, only one string to Matthew's bow. Unlike many practitioners, he also maintains a thriving domestic and international commercial and company law practice. Matthew is therefore often instructed in complex commercial disputes with a significant trust element, such as Zaleski v GM Trustees Ltd [2015] GRC 042 and [2016] GCA 009.