Bio
Melissa is a senior associate within the Corporate department in the Isle of Man, specialising in Private Client & Trusts work and Commercial Property.
EXPERTISE:
Melissa acts for international financial institutions, law firms and corporate service providers, advising on a full range of complex legal issues which affect both their own businesses and those of their clients.
Melissa deals with all aspects of trust, foundation and estate related matters including trust and corporate transactions, restructuring, provision of advice to trustees, council members, beneficiaries and protectors, assisting executors and beneficiaries with Isle of Man probate and providing legal opinions on the authority and capacity of trustees and foundations to enter into a variety of transactions.
Notable transactions include:
- drafting bespoke discretionary trust deeds for high net worth individuals.
- advising a charity with its restructuring into a foundation and subsequent administrative and legislative requirements.
- acting as Isle of Man Counsel for an international structure entering into intercompany guarantees with an international financial institution, which included an Isle of Man foundation and Isle of Man unlimited company.
- advising an international structure based in America in setting up a pension scheme on the Isle of Man for its international employees.
- assisting an executor of an international, high value estate with applying for a grant of representation in the Isle of Man.
Melissa is qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales, a solicitor in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (British Virgin Islands) and a full member of STEP.
Legal 500 UK 2022 ranked Melissa as a ‘Rising Star’ in Private Client & Trusts with testimonials describing her as being “particularly helpful providing solutions to often complex queries within tight deadlines” and being “very easy to get on with and friendly…a very good trusts lawyer with good experience”.
She was also recognised by previous editions of Legal 500 for being ‘solution driven’.
EDUCATION:
Bachelors of Law Exempting degree, with an integrated LPC from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle.
Masters of Law (LLM) with Distinction from the University of Durham.
