Ashtons Legal appoints Senior Associate Chris Cumberbatch to the Suffolk team

Ashtons Legal is delighted to announce that Chris Cumberbatch has joined their Lifetime Planning team in Suffolk as a senior associate.

Chris will be based in Bury St Edmunds but will also see clients in the firm’s Ipswich office. His arrival brings the total number in the Suffolk wide team of lawyers to 13.

Chris has been a solicitor for over 15 years and qualified as a trust and estate practitioner in 2008. His focus is on preventing disputes or unnecessary complications following death, using clear advice and documents that families can rely on in the longer term. Legitimate tax planning forms a part of this role, but it equally involves the family dynamic.

He advises a broad range of clients, from expatriates, farmers and property developers to Suffolk artists and health workers. He has an interest in planning for those looking after a disabled family member, having personal experience of trusts for the disabled. He speaks French and has worked for a notaire in Haute Savoie, France as well as for a French property team in a previous firm, so has expertise in handling the requirements of families with assets in Europe and further afield. He therefore further enhances the services that the firm can offer clients with interests in France, working closely with the firm’s French Legal Service.

Chris is a trustee of ISCRE (Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality) and the newly formed Suffolk Law Centre and has gained knowledge of charity law and management. ISCRE’s principles are to establish equality of opportunity and by that token, improving relations between different communities; ideals that Chris holds dear.

Alan Brown, Deputy CEO, Partner and Head of Individual Client Services at Ashtons said: “We are delighted to welcome Chris to the team and are pleased, once again, to be attracting so much specialist talent to Ashtons. His recruitment demonstrates our ambition to continue strengthening the firm and to provide the very best advice to our clients whatever their needs.”

Chris Cumberbatch said: “I am very excited to join Ashtons and am looking forward to working with the team to support clients, family members, carers and members of the wider community”.