Lesley leads the private client team at Penningtons Manches LLP. After studying for a modern history degree at Oxford, she turned to the law, joined the firm as an articled clerk in 1972, qualified in 1975, and became a partner in 1978. Since qualification she has always specialised in the private client field, advising families and individuals, family offices and family businesses, on tax and succession issues, including strategies for mitigating tax exposure, involving the use of tax efficient structures, wills and trusts, for both UK and international clients. She also deals with heritage property and charities. With almost 40 years’ experience in advising individuals and families, their family offices and their businesses, she is regarded as a vital part of their advice network by many of her clients.
Lesley also served for 11 years as Managing Partner and then Chief Executive of the firm, returning to full time client work in October 2008. Partly through managing lawyers, she has developed her acute insight into human behaviour, an essential skill for a private client practitioner. Since 1996 she has been head of the private client team which now has 11 partners, six of whom are based in the London office, with around 50 other lawyers and tax and trust professionals.
In the past few weeks, Lesley and the rest of the private client team have been busy with the integration of members of the newly-expanded team following the acquisition of the business of Manches LLP by Penningtons to form the firm of Penningtons Manches LLP.
Lesley has been a member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP) for over twenty years, and is the General Editor of Butterworths Wills, Probate & Administration Service, and one of the editors of its Wills Division as well as being a member of the Consulting Editorial Board of LexisPSL. She is a regular speaker at conferences both in the UK and abroad.
Lesley’s work has long been recognised throughout the private client world and she consistently features as a leader in the industry’s rankings. As well as accolades from Citywealth where she won the inaugural Editor’s Choice award in 2010 and has consistently featured in its Leaders’ Lists as a Top Twenty Lawyer and one of the Top Twenty Women in Private Wealth Management, she has in the 2014 list again been recognised as one of the UK’s 50 Most Influential Private Client Practitioners 2014 by Private Client Practitioner and is also one of the International Trusts & Private Client Elite 100 by Legal Week. She features in Chambers Global and the Legal 500, which says of her that she enjoys “an eminent reputation in private wealth management”.
The private client team was in 2013 shortlisted for the STEP ‘International Team of the Year’ award marking its ever-growing practice in the international arena.
