Hannah Brittain

Biography

Hannah is a Senior Associate based in the Bristol office, specialising in trust, probate and charity legacy disputes. She acts for national charities and private individuals advising on a range of issues relating to disputes arising out of wills, trusts and estates. Within this, she has built a specialist focus on charity legacy disputes, working with legacy officers to resolve disputes over charitable legacies in wills.

Expertise:

Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 claims;

Will validity disputes (including testamentary capacity, lack of knowledge and approval, undue influence and fraud);

Applications concerning the interpretation and construction of wills;

Proprietary estoppel claims;

Professional negligence claims (arising from the administration of estates and for negligent drafting of wills);

Breach of trust claims;

Executor issues (such as failure to pay a legacy, obtaining estate accounts, challenging administrators fees);

Applications to court for removal and substitution of personal representatives of the estate.

Hannah trained as a commercial litigator with Thrings LLP in their London office, where she also gained experience in claims for breach of trust, applications for the removal of trustees, Public Trustee v Cooper applications and inter-family disputes in relation to the ownership of valuable antiques and artworks. She then moved to Stone King LLP, where she gained experience in dealing with Inheritance claims, claims in relation to the administration of estates including constructive trust and proprietary estoppel claims and charity legacy disputes. Hannah has also worked for a specialist contentious probate firm, IDR Law, where she headed up the Charity Legacy Disputes team.

Hannah is a member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS), has obtained Civil Higher Rights of Audience and has extensive experience in negotiation and settlement techniques including alternative dispute resolution, in particular mediation.

Relevant experience

Hannah has been involved in a number of important published trusts and estates cases, in particular a Public Trustee v Cooper application for the blessing of a ‘momentous decision’:

Acting for the trustees of the Savernake estate in their dispute with the Earl of Cardigan concerning the ownership of paintings and the self-dealing rule Brudenell-Bruce v Moore and Cotton [2012] EWHC 1024 (Ch)
Acting for trustees in an application to remove trustees and claims for breaches of trusts and repayment of unauthorised remuneration Brudenell-Bruce v Moore [2014] EWHC 3679 (Ch)
Acting for trustees in an appeal against the trustee’s application under Public Trustee v Cooper for approval of the sale of the estate’s prized asset Cotton & Moore v Brudenell-Bruce [2015] W.T.L.R 39