Alexa Collis, partner and private client lawyer at Harbottle & Lewis, discusses life since joining the partnership, advising celebrity clients and leading charity initiatives
Alexa Collis’ legal journey began at a firm outside London, where she trained and eventually qualified into the private client team. A few years later, eager for a change of scenery, Collis came across an intriguing opportunity in Guernsey. “It wasn’t something I had ever seriously considered before, but I just thought — why not?” she recalls.
Her willingness to embrace the unknown led to a career rich with unique experiences beyond standard trust structuring. “The office of the firm I joined felt a bit like a start-up,” she shares. “We were identifying our target clients, going out to win work, and channelling it to other departments. It was a real lesson — not just in legal practice, but in how to run a business.”
After three years in Guernsey, Collis travelled for six months before returning to the mainland and joining a boutique private wealth law firm in London. She worked closely with one of the founders in their international advisory practice, moving with the team to Harbottle & Lewis in 2020. “We were building our specialism in working with clients with US connections, particularly entrepreneurs and those in the media and entertainment industries; it felt like a natural fit.” Collis explains. “I was really excited about joining Harbottle — I was aware of the high-profile clients they advised across the firm, and I knew that working alongside lawyers with different specialisms and experience to my own would provide me with a strong platform from which to develop my practice.” Since joining the firm, she has continued to focus on clients with US ties and, increasingly, those pursuing philanthropic ventures.
Promoted to partner in June this year, Collis has had no trouble settling into her new role. She attributes this to working with people “who realise, and appreciate, the importance of developing talent”. Being a partner naturally brings with it a sharper focus on attracting and retaining clients, and Collis was able to lean on her previous experiences — particularly in Guernsey — to hit the ground running in this regard at the Harbottle partnership. When producing a business plan in the promotion process, she referenced her time spent in Guernsey. Whilst she learned a great deal about their law of trusts, she says, her biggest takeaways were how to grow a business, how to market effectively, and how to identify the unique selling points (USPs) of a firm and its partners.
I ask Collis if she has any advice for junior lawyers with ambitions to reach partnership one day. Her first piece of advice is to “soak up the knowledge in your practice area”. Juniors are less occupied by managerial tasks, so they should hopefully have more time to absorb as much technical information as possible and to figure out what they’re most interested in, she advises.
Collis’ second piece of advice for junior lawyers is to start to build their profiles. She emphasised that there are a multitude of ways to do this, and it does not invariably mean frequenting crowded networking rooms and unnaturally inserting oneself into conversations. “If you get on well with someone on a client matter, just suggest meeting up to grab a coffee! The simple act of meeting someone you get on with, and staying in touch, can ultimately be of real value.” She also recommends alternative ways of getting your name out there, such as contributing to articles and insight pieces.
The recent Autumn Budget introduced various tax reforms, and I am curious as to how this is impacting Collis’ private client practice. The Budget has certainly kept the Harbottle & Lewis private client team exceptionally busy: both in the lead up, and since it was announced. For example, ahead of Budget Day, the mere rumours of tax changes prompted productive conversations with clients regarding their lifetime gifting. Whilst the conversations were always broader than just the tax consequences, Collis explains that where a client had been minded to make a gift in any event, they often chose to do so prior to the Budget (taking advantage, for example, of the then-rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT)). She also gives a mention to Harbottle’s corporate team, who “were also working tirelessly on deals looking to close ahead of the Budget”. Collis adds that, while the increase in the CGT rate “wasn’t as high as many had conjectured”, clients were still grateful to have captured that lower rate.
Since the Budget, there have been a lot of tax changes to digest; particularly for those who have come to and/or left the UK. For Collis’ clients who have a UK connection, but are not necessarily residents here, some of the changes were welcomed, she says. “Going forward, replacing the concept of “domicile” with a residency-based test will offer clarity and certainty for many of those clients,” she notes. Collis recognises that her specialism, and that of Harbottle, in dealing with US clients means that they are feeling the effects of the Budget less than some of their competitors. “Simply by virtue of being US citizens, they will pay US taxes wherever they are based in the world, and so they’re already accustomed to taxation!”
When asked about the most rewarding part of her work, Collis tells me it’s her clients: “A lot of our clients are genuinely inspirational in so many ways… They have spent much of their lives establishing their legacies, and it’s a privilege to help them preserve and protect what they have built.” She cites a recent meeting with a client, where they walked around the room discussing ideas. “By the end of it, we were having so much fun! I know that my client had been dreading the meeting because it wasn’t something she wanted to think about.” Collis tells me this is often the case, particularly with younger clients. “She didn’t know where to start, so I think she felt quite overwhelmed.” It is evident that Collis truly enjoys helping her clients preserve their legacies, which is “a really unique part of being a private client lawyer”.
Advising clients in the media and entertainment industries helped Collis develop many skills, among which is getting clients engaged with estate planning in the first place. “If you take sports, for example, someone who is suddenly doing incredibly well might be the first in their family to be making this kind of money. Fairly immediately, they become exposed to the pressures which come with a substantial level of wealth.” Collis has seen this both in her work at Harbottle & Lewis and through her role as trustee of Sporting Chance, the go-to mental health charity for professional sportspeople. “These professional athletes might quickly become the main provider for a number of people,” Collis notes. “It’s therefore imperative that they are supported by sound financial and legal advice.”
She explains the importance in her role as an entrusted advisor of effectively communicating to clients the importance of putting certain structures and documents into place. “Clients rarely relish the idea of dealing with estate planning,” Collis notes. “I am conscious it may fall by the wayside without a clear nudge! However, a huge part of my role is to build a rapport and communicate with my clients in the most engaging way possible.”
This is where Harbottle’s well-rounded service comes in. Collis works closely with other teams, such as IP, corporate and music to deal with client assets. “So much of what we do involves walking down the corridor to another department. If a high-profile client has passed away, then we’re going right to the reputation management team because statements need to be released. We try to tackle every legal issue holistically, and we therefore often involve several teams, which is great because then you’re not missing anything — you get the client covered off from pretty much every side.”
In addition to her work as a private client lawyer, Collis also leads the firm’s ‘Charity of the Year’ programme. “As much as I love what I’m doing in the private client space, my charity work is about wanting to do something else that I felt mattered.” The firm is currently partnering with Key4Life, a charity tackling youth re-offending. The charity recently hosted a Dragons’ Den event where men supported by the charity were able to pitch their business ideas to industry experts. “As a firm, we cover a wide range of sectors and so it was great to be able to, for example, connect those men whose ideas related to fashion to our contacts and clients in those industries,” Collis recalls. Many in the firm have also participated in the charity’s programmes which, amongst others help those supported by the firm’s chosen charities to build CVs and to practise interviewing techniques.
As the interview draws to a close, I ask Collis to offer a piece of advice for aspiring lawyers. “There’s no rush,” she replies. “Take the time to figure out to which areas you are best suited.” She emphasises the importance of finding out what truly interests you, which is where she says aspiring lawyers will ultimately excel. “Then, make it work for you.”
Alexa Collis will be speaking alongside her colleagues, Ed Lane, Marissa Beatty and Sofie Sigvardt, in the corporate, IP disputes, and media & entertainment teams, at ‘Musician to mogul: partnering with talent to build a business empire – with Harbottle & Lewis’, virtual event taking place TODAY Thursday (28 November). APPLY NOW to attend.
About Legal Cheek Careers posts.
