Raquel Ugalde – a solicitor at Bath law firm Stone King – has won a Worldwide Excellence Award having achieved the highest mark in an international qualification.
A member of Stone King’s specialist International and Cross-Border Team, Raquel scored the top mark in the Society of Trustee and Estate Practitioners’s (STEP) ‘Advanced Certificate in Cross-Border Estates,’ a specialist legal qualification on cross-border estate planning and succession.
STEP administers the Worldwide Excellence Awards twice a year to recognise the top scoring student at distinction level.
The private client solicitor specialises in international and cross-border wills and succession, and advises clients who have assets in the UK and abroad on estate planning, inheritance tax, domicile issues, will preparation and powers of attorney, as well as administration of multi-jurisdictional estates.
Raquel said she was “honoured” to have scored the highest mark in the paper.
She added: “The advanced certificate was understandably very difficult but it has helped my professional development and ability to advise clients with confidence.”
Raquel qualified as a solicitor in 2012, having completed her legal studies at the University of the West of England. After practising in wills, trusts and probate for five years, she joined the International and Cross-Border Team at Stone King in 2017. The team is dedicated to international succession, cross-border planning and overseas probate work.
Raquel’s team colleagues also hold the same qualification with distinctions which the firm says reflects its expertise in this niche legal field.
Pictured above: Raquel Ugalde
