People

Varied perspectives help us to build constructive working relationships.

People
Rachel Spruce, Associate at Penningtons Manches

Profile

Rachel is an associate in the private client team in the Oxford office and a member of the sports sector group. Her practice involves advising trustees on their duties and responsibilities in a variety of contexts, including sporting organisations, academic institutions, family trusts and private grant-making charities, where she is able to draw on her personal experience of involvement with sports organisations and charities. 

She also advises across a wide range of private client and charity matters, such as establishing and administering trusts, including charitable trusts, and applications for grants of probate, including administration of deceased estates. In particular, Rachel advises on a range of probate matters, from small, straightforward applications for a grant of probate, to more complex, high value estates involving trusts and succession planning structures.  

Rachel qualified in 2011 and joined Penningtons Manches Cooper in 2017 from a City-based law firm. She is a co-host of the sports team's podcast series, 'Fair play', on the challenges elite female athletes face throughout their career. 

Recent work highlights

  • Advising an officer of an unincorporated sports organisation on governance.
  • Providing training sessions for charity trustees on their duties and responsibilities and advising on practical strategies to ensure good governance.
  • Acting for executors and trustees on an estate with a complex property co-ownership situation, including lifetime trusts and estoppel.
  • Drafting wills to provide for complex family circumstances, including gifts to unincorporated associations and the protection of a vulnerable beneficiary with provision for their long term needs to be met.
  • Guiding executors of a high value estate through the process of applying for probate and the subsequent administration of the estate of a high net worth individual with assets in multiple jurisdictions and a complex family background.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC311575 and is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under number 419867.

Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP