Christopher Scholefield
Partner & Advocate
Christopher is a partner and heads the corporate and trust team at Viberts.
Christopher has an in depth knowledge of the legislation and practice that apply to Jersey companies, Jersey trusts (whether set up in life or in a will) Jersey partnerships and Jersey foundations. He advises people planning to establish such arrangements, the regulated financial services providers who administer them, third parties dealing with them and those shareholder, partners or beneficiaries who question whether their interests are being well looked after. Currently his clients include commercial organisations, charities and beneficiaries of contested cross border estates. Recent work has included assisting the charity that works to help other charities and securing wasted costs for a trustee from the law firms who advised beneficiaries to bring ill-founded litigation against them.
When advising his clients Christopher typically brings the following skills to the table:
- As a lawyer who handles contentious work and is accustomed to court proceedings he takes care that the evidence of his clients’ conduct would earn the understanding and respect of a court were it ever to be considered there;
- With his exposure to civil law systems and civil law practitioners he bridges both the language and the cultural gaps that have sometimes opened between his clients and those responsible for their affairs;
- With his rigorous approach to the use of language he is adept at flushing out ambiguities before they can cause mischief;
- He uses his experience to make sure that he not only answers his clients’ questions, but also volunteers other information material to how their objectives might best be achieved.
Christopher is recognised as a 'Key Lawyer' by the Legal 500 UK 2025 edition and as a ‘Recommended and Key Lawyer’ by the Legal 500 UK 2024, 2023 and 2022 edition.
Christopher’s interests include planning and urban design, cycling, and vexillology.
Key Information
Admitted
- Jersey Advocate - 1987
Additional Languages
- French
- German
Year Joined
1992
Education
University of Oxford - Jurisprudence MA
Credentials
- 'Recommended Lawyer' - Legal 500 2024, 2023 and 2022
Memberships & Organisations
- Member of the Jersey Law Society
- Member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners ("STEP")
- Alliance Française Board Member
- Victoria College Foundation Trustee
- Save Jersey’s Heritage Chairman
- Consul Honoraire de France à Jersey
- Board member of the Don Balleine Inc. (dedicated to promoting Jersey’s native language, le Jèrriais)
Speaking Engagements
Christopher has provided in-house training to various organisations on request. Topics have included; company law, directors’ duties & corporate governance, foundations, Jersey domicile but assets elsewhere, non-domicile in Jersey but assets in Jersey & where Ltd. companies sit in the range of options available for doing business in Jersey. Christopher moderated a panel discussion “Are trusts defunct?” at the BL Jersey Trusts Conference (May 2016). Christopher spoke on the subject of beneficiary rights at the BL Jersey Trusts Conference (May 2015). Christopher has addressed the Step Jersey annual conference on the subject of explaining common law trusts to settlors from civil law countries. Christopher has spoken in French in France and in Switzerland on matters of Jersey law. Christopher has addressed a special sitting of the board of a major company on aspects of company law material to them. Christopher has spoken at and chaired numerous professional conferences in Jersey and addressed conferences in London on matters of Jersey law.
Highlights
Christopher appeared for his client, a software house, having identified and exposed the breaches of the IP licence agreement a software designer had granted to it and then breached.
Christopher has acted for trustees, beneficiaries and interested family members in cross border trust disputes both in the context of matrimonial proceedings and where there have been disputed estates, in one case for the legitimate heirs of the founder of a household name industrial concern.
Christopher advised a prominent Jersey charity on the creation of Jersey’s first public company limited by guarantee.
Having made a close study of Jersey foundations, Christopher was instructed to settle the pro forma charter and regulations of a long established services provider for both their Jersey and their foreign law foundations.
Christopher was the lawyer another Jersey lawyer instructed when a question arising from the Jersey law society code of conduct fell to be dealt with before the Jersey Royal Court.
Related News & Insights
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