Spear’s Review

Graeme Kleiner, a contentious trusts and estates partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, ‘really knows his stuff and is fantastically good at soothing troubled waters’, says one industry colleague. Kleiner trained and became a partner at Withers before being recruited by Speechly Bircham to head up its contentious trusts practice before it merged with Charles Russell in 2014. 

He advises on both onshore and offshore trust and succession disputes – including fraud and professional negligence cases relating to trust, tax and succession – and often works with colleagues in the firm’s family and private client practices to find solutions.  

HMRC is becoming more aggressive in its tax investigations, says Kleiner, ‘viewing any form of tax avoidance as near-tax evasion’. His view on the inheritance tax system is unequivocal: ‘Abolish it and look at alternative and more effective tax-raising measures.’