Caroline Williams spent nearly a decade in London advising international private clients before deciding to return to Bristol. The move raised a question: how to maintain a sophisticated cross-border practice without the infrastructure of a large City firm?
She found her answer in Jurit LLP’s consultant-led model.
The virtual law firm announced Williams’s appointment this week as a consultant solicitor within its Private Wealth & Tax team. Her arrival signals both the firm’s ambitions in cross-border work and a broader shift in how senior lawyers are choosing to practise—prioritising autonomy over traditional partnership structures.
Williams brings particular expertise that’s increasingly valuable in a post-Brexit environment: UK-French succession planning. Over 20 years, she’s built a practice advising affluent British clients who own French property, navigate dual tax regimes, or need coordinated wills that work across both jurisdictions.
That niche matters. Thousands of UK residents hold property in France, and the legal complexity—French matrimonial property regimes, notaire requirements, conflicting succession rules—demands specialists who understand both systems intimately.
A law and French graduate from the University of Bristol, Williams holds a Diploma in French Law from the University of Poitiers and qualified as a solicitor in 2004 with Burges Salmon in Bristol. She’s also a member of STEP, the Society of Trusts & Estate Practitioners, which sets professional standards for those advising on inheritance and estate planning across borders.
After qualifying, she moved to Charles Russell Speechlys in London, where her practice expanded to encompass estate planning, personal taxation, immigration matters—including the surge in settled status applications—and complex cross-border wealth structuring. Working with French notaires became routine. So did navigating the tax implications of French property ownership for UK-domiciled clients.
Now based remotely in Bristol, Williams will focus on exactly that client profile: UK individuals with French connections, particularly those acquiring or holding property across the Channel. Her practice includes trust drafting, cross-border estate planning, advising on French property taxation, and managing transactions that require coordination between British solicitors and French notaires.
Nicola Dudley, co-head of Private Wealth & Tax at Jurit alongside Jo Summers, welcomed the appointment as strategic. “Demand for sophisticated cross-border private wealth advice continues to grow,” Dudley said. “Caroline’s appointment reflects both the strength of our pipeline and our strategy of attracting senior specialists who want to build and develop their practices within a flexible, high-calibre platform.”
Summers emphasised the technical depth Williams adds. “Caroline’s niche expertise in advising UK-based individuals on French property ownership and succession planning significantly enhances our international private wealth offering,” she said. “This technical depth, combined with practical experience of working with French notaires and navigating dual-jurisdiction issues, will be of real value to our clients.”
For Williams, the attraction was structural. After returning to Bristol and resuming private practice, she wanted flexibility and control over how her practice developed—something difficult to achieve within traditional law firm hierarchies.
“The opportunity to join Jurit and build my practice within a virtual, yet supportive and collegiate environment was hugely appealing,” she explained. “The firm combines technical excellence with genuine flexibility, allowing experienced lawyers to focus on client work and growth without the constraints often associated with larger traditional firms. I’m looking forward to developing my cross-border practice and contributing to the continued expansion of the team.”
That rationale—senior lawyers seeking autonomy without isolation—underpins Jurit’s growth strategy. The firm now comprises nine senior partners and 25 consultant solicitors operating across the UK, many with backgrounds at multinational firms or as in-house counsel for international businesses. The virtual structure eliminates the overheads and rigidity of physical offices whilst maintaining collaborative support.
The model appears to be resonating. Legal 500 ranked Jurit in 2025 for its employment law advice to employers, with Adrian Hoggarth and Louise Taft both recognised. The firm’s technology, media and telecoms practice was ranked as ‘one to watch’, with reference to Anthony Garrod and Robert Marcus. Chambers, meanwhile, ranked the firm’s Employee Ownership Trust practice, led by Jeremy Glover.
Jurit expects further expansion across Private Wealth & Tax, as well as its Corporate, Commercial Property and Employment practices over the coming year. The demand for international private wealth advice remains strong, particularly as clients with cross-border assets seek specialists who understand the intricacies of multiple legal systems.
For UK clients with French property, those intricacies are considerable. French succession law operates on forced heirship principles that can conflict with British testamentary freedom. French notaires must be involved in property transactions. Tax treatment differs significantly between jurisdictions. Navigate it poorly, and families face costly disputes or unexpected tax liabilities.
Williams’s practice addresses exactly those pressure points. By combining UK legal training with French law qualifications and two decades of practical experience, she offers clients the dual-jurisdiction expertise that generic private client lawyers can’t easily replicate.
Whether the consultant-led model will continue attracting senior talent from traditional firms remains an open question. But Williams’s move—sacrificing the prestige of a City firm for the flexibility of a virtual practice—suggests the trade-off increasingly appeals to experienced lawyers prioritising autonomy over institutional affiliation.
For Jurit, the appointment strengthens its positioning in a competitive but fragmented market. Cross-border private wealth work demands deep technical knowledge, and acquiring that expertise through senior hires allows the firm to expand its capabilities without the long lead times of developing specialists internally.
The timing, too, works in the firm’s favour. Brexit complicated cross-border planning for UK clients with European assets, creating fresh demand for advice on everything from inheritance tax treaties to domicile planning. Those with French property—whether holiday homes in Provence or investment apartments in Paris—face particular complexity.
Williams will handle that complexity from Bristol, operating remotely but connected to Jurit’s national platform. It’s a working model that would have seemed implausible a decade ago. By 2025, it’s become a viable alternative for senior lawyers unwilling to accept the constraints of traditional practice.
