Jan Atkinson

Head of Private Client

Jan is Head of Private Client and Senior Partner at Osbornes Law

Jan is Head of the 25 strong Private Client Team at Osbornes Law and has over 25 years of experience advising clients in wills, estates and trusts work. Her main focus  is on high-value estate administrations, international estates and disputed probate and trusts cases. She is also Senior Partner of the firm.

Jan has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the private client field,  in both the  contentious and non-contentious spheres. She is well known both in the UK and internationally for her strong international practice and regular appointments  both by the Court and privately as an independent administrator (IA) to resolve long-running contentious estates.  She is known as the ‘go to’ IA.  Her most rewarding cases involve sorting out intricate estate administrations,  international probate work  and resolving disputed Estates.

Jan is a registered Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) and a registered Contentious Trust and Probate Specialist (CTAPS). She  is a regular commentator  on Wills and Inheritance issues and speaks  on these and related subjects.

Jan is recognised as a leader in her field by Chambers HNW and The Legal 500 and ranked as a ‘Top Recommended’ lawyer in the Contentious Tax and Trusts field in Spears 500.

Jan is also listed as  an approved lawyer in the Tatler ‘Address Book’, which features private client advisers who specialise in acting for HNW clients. Jan is one of only three lawyers in London, recommended for their expertise in contentious trusts and estates.

Outside of work she is a keen tennis player and loves to travel.

Jan’s Cases:

Testator’s heirs can make agreement to waive forfeiture rule, finds EWHC

On 16 June 2025, Master Bowles (sitting in retirement) made an order confirming that an agreement by all possible beneficiaries could direct an executor to make a distribution to a recipient without regard to the forfeiture rule, even if the rule was potentially engaged by the actions of the intended recipient. Read the summary on STEP.

Lorenz v Caruana [2025] EWCA Civ 606 (09 May 2025)

The Court of Appeal allowed a second appeal on a summary judgment relating to a secret trust, thereby allowing the claim to a secret trust to go to trial. Read the full judgment on BAILII.

Lyons v Kerr-Robinson [2016] EWHC 2137 (Ch)

Jan was the Independent Administrator in claims concerning transfers of money from the deceased’s estate by the former personal representative.

Fischer v Diffley [2013] EWHC 4567 (Ch); [2014] COPLR 212; [2014] WTLR 757

Jan was the Independent Administrator in claims regarding the testamentary capacity of a testatrix suffering with dementia.  The estate involved cross-border issues as well as dealing with various properties and tenants.