Legal Advisory Board

Founded by private client solicitors in 1992, legal expertise remains the backbone of Arken's estate planning solutions – from conception to ongoing development. Our Legal Advisory Board continues this important involvement, consisting of highly experienced legal professionals with extensive experience in the private client sector.

Responsibilities include:

Discussing the practitioner need for new products
Highlighting industry pain points ahead of product planning
Providing feedback on existing solutions and how they could be adapted for changing client needs
Ensuring best practice is upheld as and when new changes to the law occur e.g. up-to-date precedents
Ongoing assessment of Arken documents in line with best practice
Reviewing output of client focus groups

Board Members: 2021

Ian Bond

Ian is a Director and Head of Wills & Estates at Thursfields Solicitors and a Member (and former Chair) of the Law Society of England & Wales’ Wills and Equity Committee

Ian is also a contributor to the Law Society publication ‘The Probate Practitioners Handbook’; the 9th edition and is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), the Law Society Private Client Section and is a Trustee of the independent Law Society Charity. Ian champions the use of technology in the legal sector for the benefit of professionals and their clients; you can follow him on twitter @ianbondtep

Christopher Brewer

For a period of 15 years prior to his retirement in 1991, Christopher was senior partner in a south London legal practice where he specialised in providing private client services. He then set up and led for a period of 24 years a group of successful companies delivering software to provide high level professional Will writing and trust solutions both for the UK and internationally. He undertook responsibility for the legal content of those systems. From 2016 he has continued to act as a consultant advising upon Will and Trust systems.

Christopher is a practicing solicitor and STEP member.

David Barnes

David joined the Executor and Trustee side of what is now Lloyds Private Banking in September 1959 and held many senior technical and branch managerial appointments during his 36-year career there. He was, for a number of years, the Senior Manager of the London Area Office.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (Trustee Diploma in 1964), David is also a Fellow of the Society of Will Writers, a member and former Chairman of STEP Sussex Branch. He was appointed to STEP Council in 1994 until 2003 serving as a member on a number of committees, and was appointed CEO of STEP 1999-2001.

David ran his own Consultancy, dealing with Will preparation, Inheritance Tax, general Succession Planning and Training. He was also a Tutor with Central Law Training for the STEP diploma examinations and lectured on succession law at Croydon College for ILEX and Introduction to Law students.

David now acts as a consultant and is involved in the development of software solutions for Will writing and technical knowledge resources.

Samantha Warner

Samantha Warner is Head of Product at Arken.Legal. She read law at Cambridge and qualified as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand, working in large firms there for a number of years.

Samantha has held company directorships and legal advisory roles in diverse industries including technology, hospitality, intellectual property and cosmetics. Samantha has a passion for product and the many benefits that legal tech can bring to estate planning practitioners.

Harriet Betteridge

Harriet is a qualified solicitor who joined Arken in January 2022 to look after the legal content of the products. Harriet has eight years of experience working as a private client solicitor for top 100 firms with expertise in Wills, trusts, mental capacity and tax.

Harriet is a full member of STEP. She has been awarded a STEP Worldwide Excellence Award and in 2021 was named as one of Eprivateclient’s Top 35 under 35.