Overview

Eleanor is Head of the Trusts and Estates Administration Department, a large team dealing with estates and trusts administration on behalf of financial institution and trust corporation clients. Eleanor is a specialist in wills, probate, tax and trusts, and is a full member of STEP (the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners). She is also a committee member of the STEP Wales branch.

Experience

Since 2012, Eleanor has been Head of the Trusts and Estates Administration Department. This large department is staffed by experienced, STEP-qualified lawyers, who deal solely with probate, estates and trusts administration. Eleanor’s clients include household names, such as two high street banks, several building societies and a nationwide network of funeral directors. Her team acts for lay individuals and corporate executors and trustees, to include the banks’ trust corporations, and Hugh James Trust Corporation Ltd.

The cases dealt with in Eleanor’s team range in complexity from straightforward grant of probate applications, to multi-million pound estates with overseas assets, business or agricultural property and contentious aspects. Eleanor has an in-depth technical knowledge of the issues that may arise in estate administration cases and provides technical support to both her team, and her institutional clients. She has significant experience in on-boarding new streams of work from institutional clients, having been involved in numerous successful bids and tenders, and manages relationships with business clients and referrers.

Work history

Eleanor became a Partner in the wills, trusts and estates team in 2014. Eleanor trained with Hugh James and since her qualification in 2006, she has practiced exclusively in wills, probate, tax and trusts.

Memberships

• Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)

Additional information

What do you love most about your job?

My role involves a great deal of interaction with people. I manage a fairly large team which works closely with the other private client teams in Hugh James. I am pleased to be able to say that, as well as getting on with each other socially, we can work well together to find solutions to any problems that arise and to continuously improve the service we offer to our clients. I also enjoy building good relationships with my counterparts at our institutional clients, who I speak to and meet with regularly. Finally, the nature of our work means that we spend a lot of time in contact with individual clients and beneficiaries of estates and trusts. It is very rewarding to be able to assist a client or beneficiary at what is often a difficult time for them.

What do you like to do outside work?

Reading, baking, and going to the gym.