Spear’s Review

‘I’m very much an old-fashioned private client solicitor in that I look after a family over multiple generations, and I’m here for them if they need me,’ says Payne Hicks Beach’s Emma Copestake.

The partner acts for HNWs, investors, developers, banks and institutions in complex and often multi-jurisdictional matters relating to residential property. 

The 2025 autumn budget and subsequent volatility in the UK property market had a substantial effect on her clientele. ‘A large number of UHNW individuals became incredibly unnerved,’ she tells Spear’s. ‘The number of people leaving the country is unprecedented.’

Copestake also notes a change in the way her clients want to interact with their advisers. ‘They do not want to deal with silos – taking tax advice here, tax advice in the US – they want one person who sits as the spider in the centre of the web and manages it all for them.’