As a partner in the Private Client Advisory team at Birketts LLP, Caroline advises a wide range of private clients and charities on matters to do with estate administrations, the mitigation of inheritance tax and executors’ duties. She especially enjoys dealing with estates with complex or unusual elements.
What was your career path to your current role?
I took an unconventional route into law. After leaving school without a clear sense of what I wanted to do, I chose to work rather than pursue a degree that didn’t feel meaningful. That decision led me through roles in IT, advertising, PR, and even assisting at a very junior level on a forensic accounting banking investigation — an experience that first sparked my interest in the legal world.
Determined to pursue that interest, I studied at night while working during the day, qualifying as a chartered legal executive in 2009. I began as a legal secretary and steadily built my career, eventually becoming the first chartered legal executive to be appointed partner at Michelmores in 2022. Today, I lead the Private Client Advisory (Domestic) team at Birketts’ Bristol office, helping grow and shape a new and ambitious presence for the firm in the South West.
Did you have any other career ambitions?
I grew up in Zimbabwe and spent much of my childhood and teens with my parents and friends camping in very wild places. I am deeply passionate about the protection of wildlife and the beautiful wild spaces I was blessed to grow up in. For most of my early life I wanted to be a game guide, but I was told by my A-Level career advisor that it was not a sensible job for a young woman! That early dream of becoming a game guide never quite left me, and perhaps one day I’ll find my way back to it! Never say never.
What keeps you motivated in your work?
Birketts’ Bristol office is a fairly new ‘outpost’ for the firm. It takes a leap of faith, a measure of bravery and a nuclear level of positive energy to grow something. What motivates me most is the team around me: some colleagues chose to follow me from my previous firm, and I feel a deep responsibility to them and my fellow partners who believe in me to make things a success. I am motivated to not fail anyone who puts their trust in me, and there is a great deal of responsibility in that.
What has been the best development in wills and probate in the last 20 years?
The willingness to review historic legislation which is not always fit for purpose. That said, it does still feel that there is a long way to go.
And the worst?
Getting through to HMRC and HMCTS – enough said!
If you could bring in one new piece of legislation for the sector, what would it be and why?
I would introduce a restriction disallowing lay people to deal with certain types of tax reporting based on the nature and value of the transaction. It is baffling that professionals have to be regulated and soon registered with HMRC to deal with any level of tax advice or reporting, but a lay person can do so without any qualification or regulation. I can only imagine the level of incorrect or under-reporting that is happening. If this gap was plugged, the government could most likely reverse its punitive legislation for APR, BPR and pensions.
What piece of legislation would you take off the statute books and why?
A complete reversal of the APR, BPR, and pension legislation in terms of inheritance tax. I think the full effect of the pain this will cause to families is yet to be seen. I wait to see with bated breath if HMRC will have the people and systems in place to deal with the new legislation and its effects. It won’t be the super wealthy these tax changes will affect as they will have paid for titanium-plated advice. It will hit the people in the middle who are just trying to make an honest living, build businesses, and those who are the current stewards of much of the countryside.
What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you regarding your career?
Value yourself and don’t underestimate what you are capable of achieving.
What’s the best piece of advice you’d like to give to someone just starting out?
Don’t beat yourself up if you make a mistake. It is easier said than done, but everyone makes mistakes and they are often the best way of learning – provided you don’t make the same mistake twice!
Tell us something people may be surprised to know about you…
I’m physically incapable of doing an Insta pout.
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One Response
I agree with much of of the statements made around “Lay People”, and more importantly, half trained individuals especially hose who are unable to recognise, or carry on regardless with areas they are not fully trained in. THe Legal services Sector is awash with predfatory like solicitors and entrapment ( as I discovered when I purchases Westminster Wills Ltd ) and joined the Society of Will Writers and the Institute of Professional Will Writers who claime much but have little or no compliance over their members, and permit ex IFA’s to mislead the members ( reported and not dealt with) – instead being terminated by way of persecution bytheir CEO. Solicitors are often unable to find clients and require to become vultures in Chambers of Commerce seeking out leads. Solicitors are too expensive for the work they do and have been found to create future work ( often unchallenged) In one case a mother with three children two living at home, one married, where the will left the family home equally in trust to all three. The child living away from home could not get access to their share – becasue no provision was made for finances – but thesolicitors sold a will and Life interestTrusts. The two children living in the home could not afford to keep the home, and each child wanted their share due to lack of explanation of the circumstaces ( in breach of Law Society guidance). Law Society is often accused of Premeditated insular restrictive practices ( often without practical guidance ).