Leaders List interview: 60 seconds with Vanina Wittenburg, Hunters Law

Date: 16 Oct 2024

Karen Jones

This week’s 60-second piece is dedicated to Vanina Wittenburg, Senior Associate at Hunters Law.

Tell Citywealth readers a bit about your role.

“I am a Senior Associate in the Private Client Department at Hunters, and have just hit 8 years PQE (post-qualification) as a solicitor. At this stage I mostly run my own files, though I am still under the supervision of a partner – but I am now senior enough I will go to the relevant partner only when I am dealing with a tricky point of law, or something that needs to be dealt with strategically. It also means I have more junior members of the department – paralegals, trainees or newly qualified solicitors – to help me with the more administrative tasks, so I now do my own supervision. In terms of my work, I have a very broad practice, ranging from the administration of estates to Will drafting, the creation and running of trusts, estate planning advice, the registration of LPAs, and anything in between.”

What does a typical day look like for you?

“One of the things I enjoy the most about my job is that because I deal with individuals and families, every matter is different, even where the premise is the same, as clients’ circumstances and wishes will always differ in subtle or not so subtle ways. This means that every day is different, though a common theme is that inevitably every day I will need to think about a point of law or a procedure in a novel way, to adapt it to the needs of a client. So on any given day you will find me spending some time researching a particular (usually very niche!) legal or tax issue. The rest of my time is spent advising clients – whether drafting emails or letters, speaking to them on the phone or meeting in person or via Zoom; preparing HMRC accounts and forms to report tax events relating to inheritance tax, capital gains tax or income tax, and liaising with HMRC; drafting Wills, codicils and deeds; managing estate administrations, including working on estate accounts (private client is a surprisingly spreadsheet-heavy area of law); and knowledge-sharing with my colleagues.”

Tell us about some recent, interesting client instructions/requests you have received.

“I have dealt with a couple of estate administration matters recently which required some quite complex arrangements to ensure that all beneficiaries – children of the deceased in each case – were treated fairly and all received the same from their parent, taking into account lifetime gifts which had been made by the deceased.This sort of situation is likely to arise where someone has consistently thought about estate planning during their life, and therefore given assets away when appropriate. Quite a lot of thought then needs to go into how to make distributions fair on death, taking into account the deceased’s wishes.”

What challenges do your clients face and how are you helping your clients to overcome them?

“Increasing regulation and ever changing tax legislation are obviously always an issue – particularly now that we have a new UK government, with a potentially significant Budget coming up – but I think the main challenge is finding the best way of achieving what the clients want within a dynamic environment (regardless of what that environment might be!), bearing in mind that tax-saving is often not the most important factor. This requires having a real understanding of what it is that clients actually want, and what is important to them – as private client lawyers we should never make assumptions about what might be the key aim in estate planning.”  

What is your proudest professional achievement?

“I became a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) in 2021, having achieved distinctions across the board in my Diploma in Trusts and Estates (England and Wales), so from an academic standpoint, that was a proud moment. But honestly, I think what I am most proud of is that junior members of staff come to me on a daily basis asking me questions – legal or practical – and I really enjoy being a bit of a private client ‘nerd’.”

Where was the last place you travelled to for work or pleasure?

“My husband and I recently bought an old farmhouse in Normandy, so we’ve been travelling to France quite a lot – for pleasure, as well as to check on what has unexpectedly become quite a large renovation project! I am Italian and grew up in France for a few years, so having a base on ‘the continent’ has brought me a lot of joy. As has the idea of creating a new garden from scratch – Normandy is a plant lover’s paradise.”

If you weren’t in this industry, what else might you be doing?

“Growing up I thought I would become an interior designer, or an architect; interestingly I still love houses and I really appreciate that my job does involve quite a lot of residential property!”