Recent developments in the UK tax landscape, such as changes to inheritance tax reforms to the non-domiciled regime have been keeping private client lawyers busy. It has also led to much speculations on if more High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI,) especially non-domiciled ones, will consider departing the UK as a result of these changes with The Daily Telegraph claiming one millionaire was leaving the UK every 45 minutes. And many private client practices are indeed reporting a marked increase in clients looking for advice on them exiting the UK and moving to places such as the UAE, Switzerland, or Italy.
This may not be an issue for large international firms with numerous global offices, but it can be concerning for single-office or UK regional firms who may be losing otherwise happy clients, and many of these firms are now exploring options for how they can better serve an increasingly mobile and non-UK based client base. In particular they are exploring establishing single-desk or single-practice offices in strategic destinations such as the UAE, Switzerland, or Jersey, specifically to serve Private Client clientele. For example Charles Russell Speechlys opened an office in Milan in November 2024, with a Milan-based head of the office but the practice overall led by a partner in the private client team in London while wealth manager Rothschild & Co relocated their head of wealth management from their Swiss office to set up a new office in Dubai in November 2024.
But if you do set up these single-desk or sole-practice offices – but aren’t launching a full range of capabilities – how you make clients aware of the expanded offering and build credibility for this regional expertise can be challenging.
Plan ahead – get clear on purpose and goals are key
Firstly, make sure everybody within the firm is aligned on the strategic goals of launching the new desk or offering – in particular, where its clientele are expected to be coming from. Is the purpose to win new local clients in that jurisdiction, perhaps with an eye on inbound domestic referrals, to better serve existing clients who have interested there? Or is a primarily an outbound play, to offer a new service to existing and new clients based in the UK?
It may also be helpful to consider the launch of the new desk or office from a campaign perspective. A six-month focused PR campaign can be a useful way to allocate resources and reassure stakeholders with clear – such as a certain number of press mentions – making the new office or offering feel integrated, visible and successful from the start. After that six months you have a good, established base to work with to commence a coordinated and continual profile raising strategy in line with your business development objectives.
Start with the basics
Firstly, make sure the whole practice (and firm) are on board – make sure every Partner, Associate and Trainee across the firm is aware of the rationale behind the move, the topline messaging, and what it means for clients. This ensures there is consistency when your partners and other staff are talking about it out and about in the market.
Secondly, make sure there is a clear pathway for client communications. A clear flowchart that maps out how clients or referrers (such as wealth managers) will become aware of the new offering, for example through email alerts, personal correspondence from their client lead, and follow up links to relevant content, is essential. Outreach to referrers, such as wealth managers and family offices, can be complemented with a press release to global wealth management and family office trades.
It’s also very important to assess your SEO (search engine optimisation) position. For example, if somebody searches for “emigration tax advice UK Italy”, does your firm come up, and if so, how high in the rankings? Having a clear SEO strategy and goal position is essential to any content strategy. If you’re starting in a new region from scratch, making sure any media content is cross-posted on your website, updating Partner profiles, using keywords, and hygiene such as announcement press releases will all help.
Having some content pre-planned before the launch and grouped on the website (for example in a sector hub) which can launched along with the office will also help in this regard, as well as being a useful tool when introducing the new offering to new or existing clients.
Don’t overthink it
It may seem obvious to think about a regional press strategy but in fact, these can be very difficult to execute well for a small firm – and they may not actually be that useful.
Firstly, breaking into a new market of regional press isn’t always that easy. In countries such as Spain or Italy, which already have their own stock of reputable law firms, cutting through and getting press attention will be difficult. In the Middle East much of the press is based in the UAE and while there is a healthy regional media and number of correspondents from international outlets, it’s an increasingly competitive market and the number of journalists in a bureau could be small. In other jurisdictions, such as Switzerland, navigating local media requires a lot of inside knowledge of the Swiss press as well as both French and German. Other places such as Jersey or the BVIs have limited regional press.
The fact is that internationally mobile HNWIs who move to Lake Como will not necessarily suddenly start reading Corriere della Sera. Therefore, the best strategy will focus on talking about relevant topics through the same channels you reached these clients through previously. Wherever you are globally, much of the private wealth and family office press will remain the same and reaching a target client can be much more effectively done through the same publications the UK office may already be engaging with such as Spears, eprivateclient, Wealth Briefing and Professional Wealth Management. Most HNWIs will read national press, such as the Financial Times, even when abroad, and many ex-UK residents may also continue to read The Times and Daily Telegraph. This way, existing journalist and publication relationships can be utilised to start talking about issues relevant to the new region, allowing you to start spreading awareness of your expertise to a target cliental efficiently.
Build credibility
Whatever publications you do choose to focus on, it’s worth considering what you are going to be talking about. The first step is to do a quick review of past coverage and website content to see if the expertise you offer for that region is sufficiently . It may be you need to start increasing the amount of content and press you produce which demonstrates this expertise to an external audience. An easy way to do this is to make these regional issues a campaign focus or ‘red thread’ for a short period, such as six months, and uses consistent and targeted media relations to establish a bedrock of expertise for that particular region – for example, if you had established a satellite desk in Dubai, focus on talking about Dubai tax, Dubai succession planning, and Dubai real estate.
This doesn’t have to be done just by the Partner based there – the whole practice should be involved. This will help you quickly build up a base of credible media and website content that can demonstrate to clients that you know the market and issues in the region. It may also be worth setting up a website content hub purely for that region – putting this on the front page of the website will also be useful should any clients want to learn more about the new offering.
Stay integrated
The best way to promote a desk or fledgling office is to make sure that UK-based Partners continue to promote it themselves.
For example, consider focusing all PR on red-thread theme such as “global mobility” and encourage all profile-raising PR to tie back to that. This will give you a platform to talk about issues that are exactly relevant to the client base who may require a satellite offering without restricting the team to focusing only on that region.
Encourage all of the practice to share and re-post any relevant content on LinkedIn to ensue they are continuing to engage with their network on this offering – this is especially important for making sure referrers are aware of any expanded office or capabilities.
For a new desk or small office, the best way to raise awareness isn’t simply through a launch announcement but carefully building up a concerted base of content, media engagement and client engagement over a sustained period of time. This ensures multiple touchpoints where you can make existing clients, referrers and possible new clients of your capabilities while not over-investing in a still small part of the overall practice.
