STEP BAHAMAS CONFERENCE
SCHEDULE
7:30am-8:30am
Conference Registration and Breakfast
8:30am-9:15am
TOPIC
AI: Intrusion or Welcome Guest?
SPEAKER
Respected by clients for her strategic thinking, Lara uses her management, team building and relationship building skill to develop a broad range of successful commercial collaborations and to sustain a network of high-value opportunities.
As Managing Director, she is the first point of contact for clients, leading the development of services and tackling the day-to-day business challenges. Lara places huge value on results and depth of experience which shines through in the collective culture and approach of Beacon Gainer.
9:15am-10:00am
TOPIC
Tax Planning for the International Client
SPEAKER
With experience across the range of private client matters, Paul Whitehead is described as ‘spectacular’ in advising clients on matters including onshore and offshore trusts, UK personal taxation, Wills and estate planning, residence and domicile and offshore structures.
Paul is listed as a recommended lawyer by both the Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners (HNW) guides, with the latter noting “Paul explains complex things in an easy-to-understand manner”. Others comment “I would go to Paul for anything tax related. He is so good at distilling complex tax issues into a very easy-to-understand executive summary, signposting you to a clear way forward. He is fabulous on UK tax.”
Paul is chair of STEP City of London Committee. He is a regular author on matters relating to private wealth law, and speaks at various seminars in London, the Channel Islands, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, the Baltic States, Luxembourg, Israel and the US on different aspects of tax and international estate planning.
SPEAKER
Paul advises high net worth clients and global families on a variety of international tax and estate planning issues. Representing individuals predominantly from Latin America and Europe, he provides customized, tax-efficient solutions to address clients’ needs. Paul’s experience includes advising on inbound and outbound tax planning matters, foreign trusts, pre-immigration planning, expatriation, and the acquisition and disposition of U.S. real property holdings and other investments.
MODERATOR
Tomás recently joined KPMG in The Bahamas as Head of International Tax. Prior to moving to the Bahamas, Tomás worked for KPMG in the Crown Dependencies where he had responsibility for a significant portfolio of corporate/international tax advisory and compliance clients, including Corporate Service providers, Fund Managers, Banks, Multinational Groups, HNWI and Governments.
SPONSOR AD
10:00am-10:45am
SPEAKER
Richard Wilson KC has a practice encompassing litigation, drafting and advisory work across a wide range of traditional and commercial chancery, with a strong emphasis on trusts and probate (both contentious and non-contentious), related company and partnership law, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, tax, professional negligence and civil fraud.
SPEAKER
Marco is an experienced commercial litigator with a successful track record representing clients in a range of complicated high value disputes. The Legal 500 Caribbean refer to him as “a top-class commercial litigator who is renowned for his strategic thinking and creativity, and he has considerable experience in commercial fraud.” His practice focuses on banking, shareholder, insolvency and trust disputes. He regularly appears as lead counsel in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
SPEAKER
John Fritzgerald Wilson K.C. is an accomplished commercial litigator who is renowned for his problem-solving skills and ability to advocate effectively for his clients. He completed his LLB with honours at the University of Buckingham in England. John then attended BPP Law School, where he became one of the few Bahamians to ever receive honours on the Michalemus Bar exams. He was admitted to the English Bar in July of 1994 and called to Bahamas Bar in September 1994.
John is widely respected by his peers, and his experience is extensive. He is known for his unmatched ability to advocate on behalf of his clients and his specialties include trust and commercial litigation and private client advisory. John has proven himself to be an accomplished attorney over the years.
MODERATOR
Ziva, a solicitor-advocate, advises clients on dispute resolution issues, including complex trust disputes, contested estates and commercial disputes containing fiduciary elements. She counsels individuals and companies on the conduct and the avoidance of disputes and has extensive experience in cross-jurisdictional and international litigation.
Ziva brings her wealth of experience in litigation to advise on structuring trusts and other arrangements to minimize the risk of future disputes. She reviews matters to determine whether the structure will meet the family’s evolving needs, to ensure the choice of jurisdiction best suits the individual circumstances of the case and that the structure includes as many litigation deterrents as possible.
When disputes arise, Ziva will advise on and conduct mediation as well as other forms of alternative dispute resolution. In cases when litigation has been threatened or commenced, Ziva has successfully pursued and defended cases in the UK and abroad, including the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Channel Islands and the Middle East.
10:45am-11:00am
Coffee Break
11:10am-12:00pm
TOPIC
Fireside Chat: Legal and Regulatory Outlook
Our speaker will discuss and explore the following sub-topics: (i) saving defective exercises of powers, (ii) trustees’ remorse: I wish I hadn’t done that, (iii) many ways to skin a cat: some less than obvious trustee options, (iv) variations on a theme: express, indirect and statutory variations and (v) is it time to review standard trust deeds?
MODERATOR
Erin M. Hill is a senior associate of the firm who is well-versed in a variety of practice areas, including banking and finance, corporate and commercial litigation, and trusts/private client litigation.
Erin attended Davidson College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Literature and Language and a minor in Philosophy in May 2012. While at Davidson College, she spent a semester abroad in Salamanca, Spain, where she studied at the University of Salamanca while fully immersed in the local culture. During her time there, Erin became fluent in Spanish and acquired an in-depth of knowledge in Spanish literature and culture.
SPONSOR AD
12:00pm-12:45pm
TOPIC
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions - International Case Update
Our speaker will take you on a whistle-stop tour of all the most important trust cases which have been decided in the last 12 months.
SPEAKER
Adam has a broad commercial chancery practice acting in and advising on commercial and private wealth disputes both at home and abroad. He is “a top-notch advocate”, “great on his feet and on paper”, who “impresses sources with his courtroom advocacy skills”. Adam’s cross-disciplinary approach across Chambers’ main fields of practice means his commercial nous is frequently brought to bear in the private wealth sphere, while his deep knowledge of equitable, trust and corporate principles is widely sought out in commercial matters.
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12:45pm-2:15pm
Lunch Break
2:15pm-2:30pm
STEP Bahamas Scholarship Awards
PRESENTERS
Dianne is a multiple award-winning practitioner in the financial services industry with more than 30 years’ experience. She recently retired in 2021 as managing director of Leno Trust Ltd. and, immediately prior to joining Leno, served as vice president and head of trust and fiduciary at Butterfield Trust (Bahamas) Limited. She is a recipient of the Bahamas Financial Services Professional of the Year Award and also of STEP’s prestigious Founders Award.
2:30pm-3:15pm
TOPIC
Reflections on a Storied Judicial Career
Our speaker has appeared in all of the recent leading cases on the exercise of trustee powers (Wong v Grand View, Futter v Futter, Dawson-Damer v Grampian) and will provide his expert analysis of what it all means for the trustee
SPEAKER
Sir Burton Hall, who served as the ninth Chief Justice in an independent Bahamas from 2001 to 2009, having been first appointed as a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1990 and as a Justice of Appeal in 1997, had been elected as an ad litem Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 and demitted office as Chief Justice on his appointment as a permanent judge of the ICTY by the Secretary General in August of 2009. Judge Hall so served until the mandate of the ICTY ended in 2017. In 2012, he was among the 25 judges elected by the General Assembly to the UN’s International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), the successor tribunal to both the ICTY and the former Tribunal for Rwanda, a position in which he continues to serve.
4:00pm-4:15pm
Coffee Break
SPONSOR AD
4:15pm-5:15pm
STEP/EDLS Moot Competition
CONTINUED
5:30pm
Closing Event
