This document provides general guidance regarding creating a lifetime discretionary trust. It does not cover the tax consequences in any detail. Your specialist Private Client practitioner will be able to provide tailored advice based on the circumstances of your case. What is a trust? A trust is created when assets are transferred to trustees (who may be individuals or a trust corporation) to hold and look after for the benefit of specified individuals, known as the beneficiaries. The parties are: • the settlor—the person who transfers the assets to the trustees • the trustees—the persons (or trust company) who receive the assets from the settlor with obligations to look after the trust assets for the benefit of the beneficiaries • the beneficiaries—the persons who have the benefit of the trust There are different types of trusts. Three main types of trusts are: • bare trusts—commonly used to hold assets for minors until they turn 18 years old. The assets belong to the beneficiary and a beneficiary who is an adult with mental capacity can end the trust at any time by demanding the assets be transferred to them

This Practice Note gives guidance on how to approach drafting an order for use in an interim application. It addresses whether it is necessary to include a draft order with the application and provides practical guidance on the contents of the draft order itself. It should be read in conjunction with the following Practice Notes: • Judgments and orders—drafting and formalities • Judgments and orders—service, compliance, interpretation • How to make an application for a court order (CPR 23) Do I have to provide a draft order with my application? There is no explicit requirement in CPR 23 or CPR PD 23A that an application notice must be accompanied by a draft of the order sought. However, note the following: • CPR PD 23A, para 6.5 provides that a draft order must be filed and served ahead of application hearings in all multi-track cases and in small, fast and intermediate track cases if the court so directs • the process of drafting an order focuses the mind on precisely what you want

Private companies that implement share option schemes will often make use of 'exit-only' options, meaning that share options can only be exercised by participants when (and in practice, immediately before) the company is acquired by a third party (or its shares are listed on the open market by way of flotation). Such an exit provides an immediate market for the shares acquired by participants and typically, on a sale of the company, the shares will be sold by participants alongside the existing shareholders. However, it is not uncommon for private companies to put in place share options that become exercisable outside such exit events. For example, participants may be permitted to exercise their options and acquire shares after the elapse of a certain time period, or on the achievement of certain performance conditions. Some private companies also make use of direct share ownership, particularly for key individuals, using different classes of shares such as ‘growth shares’ (see Practice Note: Growth shares (value shares)). Such share ownership arrangements

Employment news analysis: As part of its plan to update the legislative framework in which trade unions operate, the government will bring forward amendments to the Employment Rights Bill (ERB) to: (1) improve the process and transparency around trade union recognition and strengthen protections against unfair practices, (2) extend access provisions to cover digital access and introduce a fast-track route for achieving an access agreement and penalties to ensure compliance, (3) abolish the 10–year requirement for unions to ballot their members on the maintenance of a political fund, (4) simplify the current information requirements on industrial action ballots and notice to employers and ensure trade unions provide a 10–day notice period for industrial action, (5) introduce e-balloting, (6) extend the expiry of a mandate for industrial action from 6 to 12 months.

Creating a persuasive proposal document requires more than good writing skills. A number of different processes need to be carried out to the right timescale and in the right sequence. Co-ordinating the team effort requires care, planning and determination. If the right steps are not taken at the right time, the exercise can quickly get out of control. This Practice Note provides guidance for law firms on some key areas to consider when producing a proposal document. It assumes the firm has decided to pitch. For further guidance on pitching for business, see Practice Note: Pitching for business and Precedent: To bid or not to bid questions. The importance of good management Good management and clear leadership are needed to produce a persuasive proposal document. This can be achieved through a single person or jointly, eg by the pitch lead and a senior BD person. Where a joint approach is taken, the pitch lead will have the primary role of directing other lawyers and encouraging them to be good team players, while

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: Further to the Government's response to the Ministry of Justice’s and Office of the Public Guardian (OPG)’s consultation Modernising Lasting Powers of Attorney, the Powers of Attorney Bill received Royal Assent on 18 September 2023, becoming the Powers of Attorney Act 2023 (PAA 2023). When it comes into force, PAA 2023 will introduce changes to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA 2005) to create a more modern lasting power of attorney (LPA) service. The changes will include: (i) introducing regulations to allow those involved in making an LPA to select whether to sign the LPA digitally or on paper; (ii) removing the ability for attorneys to register an LPA so that only the donor will be permitted to register; (iii) introducing regulations governing identification verification requirements in relation to registration applications; (iv) providing for a single route for registration objections to the OPG and widening the group of people who can lodge an objection to include third parties and not just those named in the LPA; and (v) making the notification of named

The requirements set out in section 2 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 (LP(MP)A 1989) do not apply to certain contracts and trusts. This Practice Note sets out what those contracts and trusts are, and how the exceptions are implemented. Excepted contracts The contractual formalities set out in LP(MP)A 1989, s 2 do not apply to contracts: • for leases not exceeding three years (ie short leases under Law of Property Act 1925, s 54) • made in the course of a public auction • regulated under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (other than a regulated mortgage contract, regulated home reversion plan, regulated purchase plan or a regulated sale and rent back agreement) Constructive trusts The statutory formalities set out in LP(MP)A 1989, s 2 do not affect the creation or operation of resulting, implied or constructive trusts. They are not required to be evidenced in writing. A constructive trust arises in connection with the legal title to property where one party has so conducted themselves that it

Offences relating to untrue declarations etc A person commits an offence under the section 167(1)(a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (CEMA 1979) if they knowingly or recklessly: • make or sign • cause to be made or signed, or • deliver or cause to be delivered to HMRC any declaration, notice, certificate or other document which is untrue in a material particular. A person also commits an offence under CEMA 1979, s 167(1)(b) if they make a statement in answer to any question by a customs officer which they are required to answer which is untrue in a material particular. Both offences under CEMA 1979, s 167(1) are either way offences. CEMA 1979, s 167(3) creates exactly the same offence as in s 167(1) except that no mental element is required. It is therefore a strict liability offence. See Practice Note: Strict liability. CEMA 1979, s 167(3) offence is summary only so can only be tried in the magistrates' court. Elements of the offence under the CEMA

What is common land? The term ‘common land’ usually includes all land which is subject to rights of common, ie the rights which one or more ‘commoners’ may have to take the natural produce of that land, in common with each other and with the owner of the land. In most statutes, the term ‘common’ is defined more widely as including any land subject to be inclosed under the Inclosure Acts and any town or village green. Halsbury's Laws of England defines a ‘right of common’ as: ‘a right, which one or more persons may have, to take or use some portion of that which another man's soil naturally produces. Such part of that produce as the commoners do not lawfully take belongs to the owner of the soil. The right is in the nature of a profit à prendre, and so must be distinguished from an easement, which, although a right over another man's land, confers no right to participation in the produce of that land’ Members of the public do not have common

Decisions on creating a charity When creating a charity, there are critical decisions to be made about the choice of legal vehicle and on how to approach the application process for approval of charitable status. However, prior to the start of this process, consideration should be given so to whether a charity is the right means of fulfilling the aims to be achieved. Objects to be carried out must be recognised as charitable within the definitions set down in the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (2005 asp 10) (CTI(S)A 2005), and they must demonstrably provide or be intended to provide public benefit. Practical issues about how activities will be funded and work carried out form a part of this preliminary decision making stage. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) guidance on Meeting the Charity Test is a useful starting point at the outset. Choice of legal vehicle Once the decision is made to create a charity, it is necessary to consider what structure the charity should take. The choice

MLex: UK lawmakers late on 18 March 2026 approved amendments to create a criminal offense for AI chatbots deemed unsafe, backing campaigner-led proposals over the government's preferred approach to regulating the technology. The measures, added to the Crime and Policing Bill in the House of Lords, would require companies to assess and mitigate risks, with breaches punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. The bill now moves to the House of Commons, where the government has an ample majority and where ministers may seek to overturn the changes.

This Practice Note considers the common law and statutory ways in which a highway may be created without express agreement between the landowner and the public. The creation of highways without express agreement Creating a highway without an express agreement has long been possible at common law and there are now statutory presumptions that apply in parallel with the common law. Whether the dedication is express or inferred, a highway is created when a competent landowner: • either dedicates some land as a highway, or • is deemed to have dedicated some land as a highway, and • that dedication (or deemed dedication) is accepted by or on behalf of the public This Practice Note does not apply to private rights of way, which may or may not subsist, or be acquired by adverse possession, in private law along the route of a (claimed or proven) public highway. Deemed dedication in statute The way in which the public acquires highway rights upon deemed dedication is by