Expertise

Luca has experience of disputes about the validity and administration of trusts (including directions applications, requests for information, and applications for the removal of trustees and protectors) as well as blessing applications in complex trust restructurings. He also has experience of a variety of will and probate disputes (including lack of capacity, want of knowledge and approval, and undue influence claims, as well as construction issues, claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, and proprietary estoppel claims).

Luca has also acted in a number of commercial disputes with trust law aspects or allegations of fraud or breach of fiduciary duty.

Experience

Reported cases Luca has worked on include:

• Glenn v Watson & Ors [2018] EWHC 2016 (Ch) (a three-month trial with breach of fiduciary duty and fraudulent misrepresentation claims)
• The Libyan Investment Authority v J.P. Morgan Markets Ltd & Ors [2019] EWHC 1452 (Comm) (a successful jurisdiction challenge on grounds of breaches of the duty of full and frank disclosure)
• PTNZ v AS & Ors [2020] EWHC 3114 (Ch) (on the interpretation of English law terms in a civil law context and the scope of protector’s powers)
• The Libyan Investment Authority v Credit Suisse International & Ors [2021] EWHC 2684 (Comm) (a successful jurisdiction challenge on grounds of limitation)
• Wong v Grand View Private Trust Co Ltd & Ors [2022] SC (Bda) 44 Com (a large scale trust dispute involving questions of validity)
• Grand View Private Trust Co Ltd & Anor v Wen-Young Wong & Ors (Bermuda) [2022] UKPC 47 (an appeal to the Privy Council on the application of the proper purpose rule to trust powers)

Recognition

Luca has been cited in Chambers High Net Worth 2023 as “great and a very thorough, bright, hard-working litigator” and “a delight to work with. He’s very academic, writes incredibly well, is liked by clients and is well organised.”

He achieved one of the highest grades globally in the STEP Advanced Certificate in Cross-Border Estates in 2019 for which he received a STEP Worldwide Excellence Award in 2020.

Career

Luca read Classics and Sanskrit at Oxford. He trained at Withers LLP and spent three years at Farrer & Co before joining Stewarts in 2018.

Publications

Proceed with care: legacy disputes and the duties of charity trustees, Trusts & Trustees, May 2018.

The cost of obstinacy (with Emma Holland), Trusts and Estates Law & Tax Journal, November 2019.

Personal

Luca’s hobbies include music, travelling and learning languages, and skiing.