Tilney Smith & Williamson bolsters Birmingham professional services business with two senior appointments

Tilney Smith & Williamson, the leading wealth management and professional services group, has strengthened its team in Birmingham with two new senior appointments in its professional services business. Adam West and Clare Halligan have joined its Birmingham tax team as a Partner and Director respectively.

Adam and Clare’s appointments come ahead of the group’s Birmingham wealth management and professional services teams moving to a new office at the city’s landmark 103 Colmore Row – the tallest office building under construction in the UK outside London and located in the heart of the business district – in 2022.

Based out of the Birmingham office, Adam will also take a leading role in growing the firm’s tax advisory presence in the North West. He joins Tilney Smith & Williamson from RSM where, as Private Client Tax Director, he headed up the firm’s private client advisory team in Manchester. Prior to RSM he also spent two years at PWC and six and a half years at BDO. Adam has a wide range of private client experience, advising entrepreneurs, non-doms, ultra-high net worth individuals, shareholders and family businesses.

Clare joins the Birmingham office with a remit to build a Tax Dispute and Resolution practice. She joins Tilney Smith & Williamson from Grant Thornton with 10 years tax dispute and resolution experience across the London and Birmingham markets. Clare is a Chartered Tax Advisor and member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and she specialises in supporting individuals and businesses with resolving potentially contentious situations with HMRC ranging from voluntary disclosures to serious tax fraud investigations. Clare has dealt with a full range of tax disputes and utilises her knowledge of how HMRC operates, to support businesses who wish to reduce their tax risk exposure. Her new role will focus on liaising on behalf of clients with HMRC to resolve UK tax disputes swiftly whilst preserving the client’s relationship with HMRC.

Stephen Drew, Professional Services Regional Managing Partner at Tilney Smith & Williamson in Birmingham added: “I am delighted to welcome Adam and Clare to our growing professional services business in Birmingham. Both bring extensive experience gained at leading firms and will help us keep pace with the increasing demand we are seeing in the region from clients for specialist tax planning and advisory services.

“High calibre appointments like those of Adam and Clare, combined with the fact we are moving to a new landmark building next year, demonstrate our commitment to continue investing in the Midlands. There is currently a great deal of investment in the region and its infrastructure and on the back of this we are seeing considerable opportunities to work with high quality family-owned businesses and their private interests. We will continue to invest in bringing high quality talent to enable us to provide a range of specialist services to our clients in the Midlands.”

Adam commented: “I am very excited to have joined Tilney Smith & Williamson to build a new private client tax team for the North West. That market has grown rapidly over the last few years and the need for professional help in meeting the growing complexities of the UK tax system has never been greater. With the support of the wider Tilney Smith & Williamson group we have an opportunity to lead the market for private clients and their businesses in the North West.”

Clare added: “I am thrilled to be joining Tilney Smith & Williamson with a platform to build a Tax Dispute and Resolution practice with the support of the tax leadership team. The tax team has a strong reputation for delivering solutions that are tailored to clients’ needs and the addition of a dispute resolution service will compliment this offering.”

L-R: Stephen Drew (Professional Services Regional Managing Partner), Clare Halligan (Director), Adam West (Partner) and Matt Watts (Head of Birmingham Tax) from Tilney Smith & Williamson’s Birmingham