Introduction
Charles Towl is undertaking a specialist Business and Property pupillage under the supervision of Gavin McLeod, David Nuttall, and Kirsty White. Charles has been accepting instructions since 1 April 2025 and is quickly building a busy Chancery practice with a focus on Private Client, Property, and Insolvency matters.
Charles’ current and recent matters include:
- Advising on a range of private client matters, including claims under the Inheritance Act, will validity claims, and trustee retirement / removal.
- Advising on and providing representation at a range of interim and procedural applications, including applications for set aside of default judgments, strike out, and transfer to the High Court for enforcement.
- Representing parties at final hearings, including Fast Track and Small Claims trials as well as in the First-Tier Tribunal, regarding commercial, contractual, and property disputes.
- Advising on and providing representation at a forthcoming appeal.
Prior to coming to the Bar, Charles was a paralegal in Farrer & Co’s Contentious Trusts & Estates team, where he assisted on high-value, cross-border trusts and estates disputes. As a result, Charles has a particular specialism in contentious and non-contentious private client matters.
Contentious Wills, Trusts, and Probate
Charles has experience in a number of areas of contentious and non-contentious private client practice, including Inheritance Act claims, will validity challenges, proprietary estoppel, and constructive trusts.
Charles’ recent work in this area includes:
- Advising on documents and evidence prepared in an anticipated Inheritance Act claim by an estranged adult child.
- Advising a lay trustee on the nature of a trust for the proceeds of a life insurance policy and on the effect of retirement / removal.
- Advising a prospective claimant in respect of an Inheritance Act claim, and a will challenge based on undue influence, formal validity, and want of knowledge and approval.
- Advising in relation to the possibility of a late entry of an Appearance to a caveat.
Examples of work undertaken during Charles’ first six include:
- Drafting Part 8 Claims in relation claims under the Inheritance Act, proprietary estoppel, and constructive trust.
- Drafting Particulars of Claim in a will challenge claim brought on the basis of want formal validity, want of knowledge and approval, and undue influence.
- Drafting position statements and assisting at mediations in relation to Inheritance Act, and testamentary proprietary estoppel claims.
Prior to commencing pupillage, Charles worked as a paralegal in Farrer & Co’s Contentious Trusts & Estates team, where he assisted on high-value, cross-border disputes. This included high profile litigation, such as Morina v Scherbakova [2023] EWHC 3253 (Ch), as well as Variation of Trust Act claims, Trustee Retirement Applications, and Inheritance Act claims. As a result, Charles has begun to build considerable knowledge across trusts and estates litigation.
Charles has been published in the Trusts & Trustees journal and is a contributor to the LexisNexis Private Client Expert series. Charles has recently begun Trust Issues, a new article series for Chambers looking at common issues in trust litigation. You can find the first article in this series, which provides a comprehensive guide to making Beddoe Applications, here.
Property
During his pupillage, Charles has built experience across a range of property matters, including TOLATA claims, possession claims, boundary disputes, and adverse possession claims.
Charles’ recent work in this area includes:
- Representing a respondent landlord in the First-Tier Tribunal in a claim for a Rent Repayment Order.
- Representing a landlord in a complex section 21 possession hearing and at a subsequent application by the tenant to set aside the possession order
- Representing a landlord at a Small Claim trial for damage caused during a tenancy
- Representing debtors in applications relating to mortgage possession claims, including applications to adjourn under section 36 of the Administration of Justice Act 1980.
Examples of work undertaken during Charles’ first six include:
- Advising on the prospects of obtaining an order for sale under section 14 of TOLATA in respect of a disputed family farm.
- Drafting a Defence and Counterclaim in a boundary dispute and adverse possession claim.
Charles has recently prepared an article for Chambers’ Lay of the Land series, looking at the Court of Appeal decision in Nazir v Begum [2025] EWCA Civ 587, which considered the relationship between adverse possession and statutory trusts of estate assets. You can find Charles’ article here.
Insolvency & Restructuring
Charles accepts instructions in all areas of Chambers’ Insolvency & Restructuring practice, including winding up and bankruptcy petitions, statutory demands, as well as associated interim and office-holder applications.
Examples of Charles’ recent work in this area includes:
- Representing parties in winding up petitions including obtaining a substitution for supporting creditors, and successfully applying for a petition to be dismissed where liquidators had been appointed as part of a voluntary liquidation.
- Obtaining an order for transfer of proceedings up to the High Court for enforcement in respect of a bankrupt who had engaged in extensive vexatious litigation.
Charles recently delivered a seminar with Marc Brown on the recent Supreme Court decision of Bilta (UK) Ltd (in liquidation) v Tradition Financial Services Ltd [2025] UKSC 18 at Chambers’ annual Insolvency & Restructuring Conference.
Commercial & Chancery Litigation
Charles regularly advises on and provides representation at a range of procedural and interim applications, including applications for set aside of default judgments, strike out, and transfer to the High Court for enforcement.
Charles also represents clients at Small Claims and Fast Track trials, as well as in applications in the First-Tier Tribunal, in relation to a variety of contractual and property disputes.
Examples of Charles’ current and recent work include:
- Advising on and providing representation at a forthcoming appeal against a case management decision.
- Representing a landlord in the First-Tier Tribunal in resisting a claim for a Rent Repayment Order.
- Representing Defendants at a Fast Track trial in relation to quantum arising out of misrepresentations made in relation to a franchise agreement.
- Representing a Defendant in respect of an alleged breach of an agency agreement in which the Judge found that no agreement had been reached.
- Representing a Claimant landlord in respect of damage caused during the course of a tenancy.
- Representing a Defendant in respect of unpaid invoices and a counterclaim based on the quality of works completed.
- Advising on and providing representation at a range of interim applications, including applications for set aside of default judgments and strike out.
Examples of work undertaken during Charles’ first six include:
- Preparing an application for an urgent injunction to restrain the further use of confidential information by a former employee.
- Drafting Particulars of Claim in respect of a claim for breach of directors’ duties and wrongful trading.
Qualifications
Bar Practice Course (Outstanding) – University of Law, Birmingham
LLM (Distinction) – University College London
LLB (First Class) – University of Leeds
Scholarships
Lord Denning Scholarship – Lincoln’s Inn
Head of School Module Prizes – University of Leeds
Publications
‘Gone Fishing: Legal Professional Privilege and Data Subject Access Requests in Trust Law (Dawson-Damer v Taylor Wessing LLP [2020] EWCA Civ 352)’ (Case Note) (2020) 26 Trusts and Trustees 884
‘Donatio Mortis Causa and Suicide – An Anomaly within an Anomaly?’ (2018) 4 The Conveyancer and Property Lawyer 367
Appointments and Memberships
Chancery Bar Association (Student Member)
The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn
