James McKean

James specialises in disputes over wills, trusts, and estates. These range from the high-value (a claim against a £118 million estate) to the bizarre (a disputed trust made primarily to benefit a tortoise).

His clients include high-net-worth individuals, charities, and celebrities, or their estates, but also the extremely vulnerable, among them minors and those without capacity.

These instructions frequently involve:

• Disputes over the validity, rectification or interpretation of wills and trusts;
• Disputes over the administration of estates and trusts;
• The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975;
• Disputes over the actions of personal representatives and trustees, including bringing or defending claims for breach of duty or removal from office, and applications for directions;
• Claims on behalf of estates to recover debts, compensation, lost assets, lifetime gifts or in relation to financial abuse;
• Proprietary estoppel and disputes over agricultural land or assets;
• Questions of mental capacity, including applications in the Court of Protection;
• The effect of marriage on administrations, including bigamy, polygamy, and predatory marriage;
• Matters of jurisdiction and domicile; and
• Claimant or defendant professional negligence relating to the above.

The overwhelming majority of these disputes settle out of court, especially at mediations, which James is frequently instructed to attend.

That being said, he has considerable trial experience, having appeared unled in many trials in the High Court, including Blu-Sky Solutions Limited v Be Caring Limited [2021] EWHC 2619 (Comm); Eade v Hogg [2021] EWHC 1057 (Ch); Dunstan v Ball [2024] EWHC 2105 (Ch); Gowing v Ward [2024] EWHC 347 (Ch); Onyema v Onyema (High Court 2023; unrep); Farrimond v Gwinett (High Court 2024; unrep); Ellis v Care (High Court 2024; unrep), as well as numerous trials in the County Court.

He also has wide experience of appeals, including in Howe v Leck Holdings Limited [2024] EWHC 1842 (Ch), where he was praised in the High Court for his ‘excellent’ submissions, and where he provided written submissions to the Court of Appeal, which agreed that permission to appeal should be refused; and in Onyema v Onyema (High Court 2024 unrep), Fennessy v Turner (High Court 2023 unrep), Okunola v Barca [2023] 7 WLUK 433, and Razaq v Baig [2019] EWHC 3490 (Ch).

A number of James’ cases have attracted national and even international media attention, including:

• Langley v Qin: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/daughter-wins-battle-against-predatory-wife-over-fathers-will-kt02f56h3 ; https://www.itv.com/thismorning/articles/my-94-year-old-dad-left-his-one-million-fortune-to-a-woman-id-never-even-met
• Lattimer v Karamanoli: https://www.thetimes.com/article/doctor-married-dying-colleague-to-get-her-10m-fortune-6qbnmmmvb
• Gowing v Ward: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/secret-recordings-and-punch-ups-how-grandfathers-will-inflamed-a-family-feud-vwz9690vr
• Howe v Howe: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/radio-pioneers-daughter-wins-will-battle-to-pay-for-new-breast-implants-nvqrm9rrq

James also acts in off-shore disputes, having been instructed in matters governed by the laws of Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man, where he advised the successful claimant in Mueller v Parc Aviation Services at first instance and on appeal: SUM20/0091 and 2DS 2023/01.

James frequently gives seminars, provides in-house training, and writes articles on his area of practice, having written for the Trusts and Estates Law & Tax Journal, Today’s Wills & Probate, the New Law Journal, the STEP Journal, and BJPsych Advances, as well as providing headnotes for the Wills & Trusts Law Reports.

He edits the upcoming edition of the textbook Parry and Kerridge: The Law of Succession and contributes to Williams, Mortimer & Sunnucks on Executors, Administrators and Probate.

He has also assisted the campaign to reform the Wills Act 1837 to counter predatory marriage.

James undertakes public access work. He does not advise on tax.

Langley v Qin (2024; unrep) was described as a ‘landmark judgment’ by Today’s Wills & Probate. James’ client succeeded in overturning a will made by an alleged predatory spouse on grounds of paranoid delusion and undue influence. James then acted in a subsequent passing over claim and advised on enforcement proceedings. The case was widely-reported in national newspapers and even on ITV’s This Morning.

Eade v Hogg [2021] EWHC 1057 (Ch) concerned the proportions of a valuable company shareholding which passed to a deceased’s business partner and spouse. James appeared for the spouse (Alexander Learmonth QC appeared for the business partner). The claimants succeeded in rectifying the will. The gross estate value was £6.4 million.

Lattimer v Karamanoli [2023] EWHC 1524 (Ch) was another rectification case concerned with the revocation by marriage of a will in a £10 million estate. James’ client successfully defended a strike-out application on the basis that the will might be rectified to state expressly that it had been made in contemplation of marriage. The claim later settled.

In Fullard v Kershaw [2022] EWHC 2189 (Ch) and Fellner v Cleall [2021] EWHC 3599 (Ch), James acted in proceedings to remove the personal representatives of estates. In both cases, the personal representatives stepped down during the proceedings, which concluded with James’ clients receiving their costs.

James regularly acts in 1975 Act claims, where he has achieved notable success in Rochford v Rochford [2021] WTLR 951; Chiemelu v Egemonye [2023] WTLR 17; [2023] WTLR 23; [2023] W.T.L.R. 35; Fennessy v Turner [2022] WTLR 1295 (at trial and on appeal); and in the Howe litigation, which saw over three years of disputes over the estate, valued at £1.4 million, of a man dubbed by the media a ‘pirate radio legend’. It culminated with the success at trial by his estranged daughter, James’ client, in Howe v Howe (2025; unrep). James represented the claimant at trial, but was also instructed to entangle her from prior probate proceedings in the High Court, and to act for her in insolvency proceedings, resulting in the successful appeal in Howe v Leck Holdings Limited [2024] EWHC 1842 (Ch) and the Court of Appeal refusing permission to appeal.

James also appears in the Court of Protection in property and affairs matters, having appeared in Re LMS [2020] EWCOP 52 and F v R [2022] EWCOP 49, both applications concerning the variation of a will to create a disabled person’s trust.

In pupillage, James’ experiences included Griffin v Higgs [2018] EWHC 2498 (Ch), Patel v Patel [2017] EWHC 3229 (Ch), and Goss-Custard v Templeman [2018] EWHC 2476 (Ch), all with Alexander Learmonth, and Brent LBC v Davies [2018] EWHC 2214 (Ch) with Nigel Hood.

“James is approachable, very good with clients and knows contentious probate aspects.”

Legal 500 2025 – Private Wealth and Probate; Tier 4

“His ability to find a decisive case authority that makes the difference is remarkable. He is a junior that performs well beyond that which is expected for his call.”

Legal 500 2023 – Private Client: Trusts and Probate

“James is superb. He has a unique style particularly suited to this area of work. He presents arguments in a logical, engaging and relatable manner. He reads judges well and knows what points matter.”

Legal 500 2023 – Private Client: Trusts and Probate

• BA Law (Senior Status), St John’s College, Cambridge (first class)
• BA History, Lincoln College, Oxford (first class)
• Lord Mansfield Scholarship, Lord Bowen Scholarship, Residential Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn)
• Squire Scholarship, Alfred Hall Prior Scholarship, McMahon Law Studentship, Wright Prize, Jacovides Prize (St John’s College, Cambridge)
• Gibbs Prize, Drummond Prize, LH Martin Prize, Trapp Exhibition, Grimshaw Exhibition (Lincoln College, Oxford)
• French (competent)
• Public access