Dawn Goodman

Dawn Goodman is a senior lawyer in the trust, estate and inheritance disputes team at Withers LLP in London, and was named Inheritance Disputes Lawyer of the Year in the United Kingdom at the 2024 Corporate INTL Global Awards. The recognition reflects a career of more than thirty years spent at the forefront of contentious private wealth work, and her standing as one of the field's most senior figures.

Inheritance disputes sit at the heart of Dawn Goodman's practice. She advises on probate disputes and on claims brought under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act, where family members and dependants seek reasonable financial provision from an estate. These cases are often as much about family relationships as they are about money, and they demand a lawyer who can combine technical command of succession law with sensitivity to the personal dynamics at play. Her long experience of such matters allows her to guide clients through claims that are frequently distressing as well as legally complex, and to advise realistically on their prospects and likely outcomes.

Dawn Goodman has specialised in this field for over three decades and is one of its most senior figures. She was the first litigator admitted to the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and a founding member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists, and she is recognised in the Legal 500 Hall of Fame for contentious trust and succession disputes and ranked among the leading practitioners for private wealth disputes. She is also the author and co-editor of a leading text on international trust and divorce litigation, a further mark of the authority she brings to inheritance and succession work.

Her work regularly involves cross-border elements, including estates that touch several jurisdictions and questions of how competing systems of succession law should be reconciled. That international dimension is increasingly common in inheritance disputes involving families with assets and connections in more than one country, and Dawn Goodman's experience of conflicts between different legal traditions, including common law, civil law and religious principles of succession, is a particular strength. Modern families are more mobile and their affairs more international than ever, making such expertise valuable.

A CEDR-accredited mediator as well as a litigator, she is alert to the scope for resolving inheritance disputes by negotiation and settlement where that serves her clients' interests, while remaining a formidable advocate where litigation is required. Disputes over inheritance can fracture families and consume estates in legal costs, so the ability to steer clients towards a sensible resolution is as important as skill in the courtroom. The 2024 award recognises this combination of authority, experience and judgement, and her standing as a leading UK adviser on inheritance disputes.