Kate Johnson

Partner

Private Client

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Expertise

Kate advises domestic and international clients on personal tax, trust, estate planning and succession issues. Her clients include individuals, trustees and charities often with multi-jurisdictional assets owned via complex offshore trust and corporate structures. Kate works closely with her clients and their advisors to mitigate tax and plan for the future.

Kate advises clients on the use of lifetime gifts, tax-efficient Wills, trusts and charitable foundations. Kate has particular experience advising on exiting family businesses, charity formation, succession and legacy planning for artists, onshore and offshore tax planning and trust structuring, and planning for moving to or returning to the UK. Kate frequently advises clients with charitable or valuable art interests.

Relevant Experience

  • Advising family shareholders on tax and estate planning in advance of the sale of the family business.
  • Advising on the formation and administration of charities as charitable incorporated organisations, companies limited by guarantee or trusts.
  • Drafting Wills for testators with overseas assets.
  • Advising on cross border succession planning for clients with assets, business interests and charitable interests in multiple jurisdictions.
  • UK tax and remittance planning for individuals moving to or returning to the UK.
  • Advising trustees and family members of large and diverse landed estates on trust law issues, succession planning and tax planning.

Career History

Kate qualified as a private client solicitor in 2011 and joined Wedlake Bell in 2013. Kate has a degree in Economics from The University of York, she also completed the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Legal Practice Course at BPP London.

She is a STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) member, having obtained a distinction in her exams.

Kate was named as one of eprivateclient’s 2016 Top 35 Under 35 and as Tax and Estate Planning Lawyer of the Year in the Women in Law Awards in 2016. In 2019 she won Citywealth’s Gold award as “Lawyer of the Year – Senior/Managing Associate”.  Kate has also been named in Citywealth’s Top 100 Private Client Lawyers 2021 and in the Legal 500 2024 as a key lawyer for Personal Tax, Trusts and Probate.

Kate Johnson is extraordinary. Her insight brings order to chaos, promptly recognising the practical impact of complex rules. She inspires confidence.

Legal 500, 2024

Kate Johnson has an equally keen mind, designing succession and managing global projects. She is a pitch-perfect point person among clients and multiple advisors.

Legal 500, 2023

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