James Anson-Holland

James accepts instructions concerning the full range of trust, wills, and estate disputes. He regularly represents trustees, personal representatives, beneficiaries, and various other interested parties in relation to the rights, liabilities, and obligations arising out of trusts, wills, and estates. This includes breach of trust claims, removal applications, blessing applications, statutory wills, mutual wills, lost wills, and various challenges to trusts and wills, including those involving elements of fraud and under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975. He also has experience with proprietary estoppel in estate disputes and professional negligence claims related to the drafting and execution of wills.

Recent experience includes:

• Acting as sole counsel on behalf of a beneficiary before the High Court in a probate trial on the written evidence concerning a c.GBP3 million estate and issues of capacity, knowledge and approval, and undue influence
• Acting as sole counsel before the High Court on behalf of several ‘disappointed’ charity beneficiaries concerning a White v Jones professional negligence claim against a probate professional worth c.GBP1 million.
• Advising beneficiaries in relation to an urgent application to the Court of Protection for a statutory will involving a c.GBP1 million estate.
• Acting as junior counsel on behalf of minor and unborn beneficiaries before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in relation to a blessing application involving several trusts worth in excess of USD5 billion (In re A Trust, B Trust, & C Trust (20 December 2022) (FSD 213 of 2022)).
• Advising beneficiaries in relation to an application before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands concerning a c.USD15 million estate seeking to revoke an earlier will and prove a copy of a subsequent will and codicil.
• Acting as junior counsel before the High Court of New Zealand in a trial concerning mutual wills, resulting in a leading first instance decision on the topic (McNeish v McArthur [2019] NZHC 3281, [2020] 2 NZLR 287).
• Acting as junior counsel before the High Court of New Zealand in a trial concerning novel arguments about the distribution of property held in several family trusts following the breakdown of a relationship (Wylie v Wylie [2019] NZHC 2638).

James accepts instructions concerning the full range of personal and corporate insolvency disputes, including those with a cross-border element. He regularly represents insolvency practitioners, creditors, and debtors in relation to bankruptcy and winding up petitions, administrations, and various other insolvency applications. This includes setting aside statutory demands, restraining the presentation of winding up petitions, disputed debt hearings, and claims involving breach of director duties, antecedent transactions, blessing applications, Norwich Pharmacal relief, and other urgent and ancillary applications and enforcement action.

Recent experience includes:

• Acting for the minority shareholder in a 12 day trial before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in relation to its winding up petition on the just and equitable ground. The trial was heard in October and November 2025 and judgment is pending.
• Acting as sole counsel on behalf of various companies before the High Court seeking to urgently restrain the presentation of winding up petitions.
• Advising the creditors and joint trustees in bankruptcy of a (previously) HNWI on the lawfulness of certain transactions and the validity of several trusts based in Jersey and the Isle of Man.
• Advising the Cayman Islands based joint provisional liquidators of an NYSE listed company following an alleged USD700 million fraud.

James accepts instructions concerning a range of commercial disputes, having previously worked for leading commercial law firms in New Zealand and the Cayman Islands. He has particular interest in and experience with commercial disputes that intersect with his private client, insolvency, and/or property practice.

Recent experience includes:

• Advising the subject of a freezing injunction on various grounds of appeal to the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands.
• Acting as junior counsel before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (on appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands) involving two commercial property transactions and the novel application of the law of restitution (HEB Enterprises Ltd v Richards [2023] UKPC 7).
• Acting as junior counsel before the High Court of New Zealand in a commercial debt recovery trial involving complex issues of agency, contract, property, and equity (Powell v K 2 Investment Group Ltd [2021] NZHC 2253).

James accepts instructions concerning a range of property disputes. He regularly represents landlords, tenants, charge holders, and various other interested parties in relation to their rights, liabilities, and obligations. This includes disputes involving possession, forfeiture, the Party Wall Act, and the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act.

Recent experience includes:

• Acting as sole counsel on behalf of a debtor before the County Court seeking an urgent without notice injunction preventing creditors from disposing of property.
• Acting as sole counsel before the County Court in a two-day trial concerning whether an individual was a secure tenant under the Housing Act 1985.

James is regularly instructed to provide ad-hoc advice and assistance with large scale trials and appeals, principally in the Cayman Islands. He previously worked for a leading commercial firm in the Cayman Islands and has experience working collaboratively within large solicitor and counsel teams and is happy to accept instructions on that basis.

Recent experience includes:

• Advising the subject of a freezing injunction on various grounds of appeal to the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands.
• Acting for the minority shareholder in a 12 day trial before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands in relation to its winding up petition on the just and equitable ground. The trial was heard in October and November 2025 and judgment is pending.
• Acting as junior counsel before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (on appeal from the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands) involving two commercial property transactions and the novel application of the law of restitution (HEB Enterprises Ltd v Richards [2023] UKPC 7).
• Advising the creditors and joint trustees in bankruptcy of a (previously) HNWI on the lawfulness of certain transactions and the validity of several trusts based in Jersey and the Isle of Man.
• Advising the Cayman Islands based joint provisional liquidators of an NYSE listed company following an alleged USD700 million fraud.

• New York University, School of Law, New York, United States
  Master of Laws, May 2022
• University of Canterbury, School of Law, Christchurch, New Zealand
  Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honors, February 2017

Selected texts:

• Practical Guidance (Trusts) (online loose leaf ed, LexisNexis New Zealand)
• Law of Trusts (online loose leaf ed, LexisNexis New Zealand), Pts 1, 2, and 7
• Wills and Succession (online loose leaf ed, LexisNexis New Zealand), Ch 9, Ch 12, and Ch 14

Selected articles:

• “Interests in possession: a critique of Hall v HMRC” (2023) 29(10) Trusts & Trustees 839
• “Inherent powers and their existence in adjudicatory tribunals in New Zealand and abroad”(2023) 26(3) Int ALR 161
• “The limits of settlement privilege in New Zealand: Distilling the guiding principles” [2022] 30 NZULR 79
• “Arbitration of trust disputes in New Zealand – A new frontier?” (2022) 28(5) Trusts & Trustees 376
• “Once Privileged, Always Privileged?” (2021) 9 JCivLP 161
• “Powers and jurisdiction of the Family Court clarified: The decision in Wihongi v Broad reverses a concerning trend” (2020) 10 NZFLJ 76
• “Locked down but not detained” [2020] NZLJ 166
• “Who should pay, and when?” [2019] NZLJ 360
• “The Amenability of Private School Decisions to Judicial Review” (2019) 30(2) PLR 106
• “The corporate trustee safety net? [2019] NZLJ 211
• “The enforceability of arbitration clauses involving actions in rem: a critical analysis of the rationale in Lawsonv Gawith” (2019) 38(1) The Arbitrator & Mediator 74
• “Fan Fiction: A New Zealand Copyright Perspective” [2018] NZ L Rev 1

Selected online notes:

• “The meaning of words and the importance of context (Marcus v Marcus)” LexisPSL News Analysis (6 August 2025)
• “A Trustee’s Fiduciary Duty to Meet Discretionary Beneficiary Needs?” New York University Journal of Law & Business Online (18 October 2022)
• “Confidentiality in Mediations and Settlements – The Second Circuit’s Perspective” New York University Journal of Law & Business Online (1 April 2022)
• “In Brief: Supreme Court to Determine Conflict of Laws Approach under the FSIA” New York University Journal of Law & Business Online (19 November 2021)

Selected speaking engagements:

• Presenter, Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (‘AMINZ’) Arbitration Day 2019
• Guest Lecturer, University of Canterbury, School of Law, August 2019

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