Wilsons - True Picture

Firm profile

Ranked as one of the top private client and charity law firms in the country, our 300-year heritage, combined with lawyers who are recognised leaders in their fields, enables Wilsons to provide a unique combination of skills and experience to our clients. Our lawyers are dedicated to ensuring a detailed understanding of their clients’ interests and a seamless working relationship across the different specialities of the practice. 

Main areas of work

Private client: We act for clients with business interests, landed and inherited wealth, foreign domiciliaries, UK and offshore trustees and non-resident individuals with links to the UK. Services including tax planning, estate and succession planning, asset structuring, UK and offshore trust formation and advice, wills and trusts and estate administration and probates and intestacies valued at up to £50m.

Family: The team’s expertise ranges from pre-nuptial agreements and civil partnerships to divorce, children’s arrangements and surrogacy law. 

Charity: Wilsons has one of the most highly ranked teams in the UK. We advise on the complete range of legal needs and have a particular specialism in contentious and non-contentious legacy work. The constitutional and governance team has considerable expertise in advising military charities and the charitable care sector.  

Agriculture: Wilsons’ rural team has developed a practice centred on the needs of rural business and landowners. These include complex sales and purchases, development options for landowners, grants and diversification advice and property litigation, including landlord and tenant, partnership matters, boundary, title and rights of way disputes.  

Commercial: The commercial team specialises in employment, commercial property and corporate work. Corporate work focuses on commercial tax and asset planning, transactions and refinancing. The team deals with an unusual breadth of work requiring high-quality, bespoke commercial advice. 

Property: Our clients have substantial commercial, agricultural and residential property interests and the firm advises on purchasing, letting and sales, and has a reputation for gaining excellent results in the options over and sales of development land.  

Litigation & Dispute Resolution: Wilsons has one of the largest teams outside London. We advise clients on a wide range of contentious matters to provide an efficient and effective means of dispute resolution. In addition to its expertise in agricultural and probate disputes, the firm has specialists who can advise on all aspects of commercial dispute claims and reputation management. 

Vacation scheme

Each year in June/early July we run a work placement scheme at our offices in Salisbury for second year law students or third year non-law students onwards. There are five places available on our placement and we make a contribution towards travel costs. The closing date for applications for a placement in 2025 is 31st March 2025.  

Other benefits

Pension, life assurance, choice of optional benefits and private medical insurance.