Katharine Watson

What can I do for you

Katharine advises on all aspects of personal estate planning and taxation issues. This includes drafting tax efficient and flexible wills, preparing lifetime family settlements, advising on business succession, lasting powers of attorney and inheritance tax planning. Katharine also assists clients who have assets situated abroad or those looking to move into or out of the UK.

What do others say

Mills & Reeve have a national reputation for their work on family investment companies and Katharine advises on a number of these structures both in the UK and offshore. These instructions tend to incorporate a new company for these purposes, however Katharine has also converted existing companies into a family investment company structure.

Supporting your ambitions

The values of a family underpin how Katharine’s advice is structured. This inevitably includes tax advice but the focus is to provide a bespoke service by working with the family to ensure appropriate structures are in place so that future generations have controlled access to family wealth.

Katharine also provides advice to entrepreneurs and business owners. She works with many family businesses to review the succession planning for their business.

Katharine moved to the London office in 2018 and is excited to help grow the London international private client practice and develop the wider private wealth sector offering in London.

What else should you know?

Katharine trained and qualified in Newcastle as a corporate solicitor, where she advised on a wide range of company transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, group restructurings and general Companies Act matters. Katharine transferred to private client when she moved to Mills & Reeve. This background has given Katharine a unique perspective when undertaking tax and estate planning for her clients.

What our clients say about us

“I think Mills & Reeve are a wonderful firm. The support they have provided to us in a really difficult area has been brilliant, collaborative and commercially minded. The team were absolutely wonderful and a joy to work with. Amazing advice and support and a real collaborative effort with us. I can't thank them enough for getting us through some really tough times and doing so with an amazing can-do attitude.”

“They are friendly, fast, always available and always on top of the game. I tend to judge my legal team against the other side's legal team and never doubt Mills & Reeve is the better of the two.”

“All interactions have been very clear. Responses to questions have always been very swift and unambiguous. Our company, and my family, have used various services in Mills & Reeve with the same level of satisfaction.”

“I value the fact that Mills & Reeve are recognised as a good place to work in the UK Best Companies survey. This aligns with the values of our business and means that Mills & Reeve can share what is required to achieve this status with our business.”

As many clients will testify, too many lawyers deliver the required legal expertise but fail to deliver an outstanding client experience. Which is why we always listen to our clients and constantly ask ourselves what we can do to deliver the results you expect.

You expect a close and attentive working relationship, with a lawyer that is responsive and available when you need them. You also want clear, pragmatic and commercial advice tailored to your needs, and transparency and certainty on costs. We completely agree. That’s why every day, through our culture and approach we are committed to delivering the exceptional results and service our clients expect of us.

Insights from Katharine

29 Feb 2024

Spring Budget: All is not lost for non-dom clients

23 Jan 2023

Non-domiciled status – what does this mean?

17 Jan 2023

Existing clients

Staff