International Private Counsel

London · Dublin · Madrid · Dubai · Bogotá

Fernando del Canto is a dual-qualified English Barrister and Spanish Abogado, and a Registered European Lawyer in Dublin. He was the first Spanish Abogado to be called to the Bar of England and Wales. Fernando advises individuals and families whose lives cross borders — those with homes, children, businesses and investments spread across two or more jurisdictions, and whose tax and legal arrangements rarely keep pace with the lives they are meant to serve. He also acts for the family offices, trustees and professional advisers who serve them.

Scope of practice

Fernando is instructed across the principal questions that arise when private wealth is held, earned or inherited across more than one jurisdiction:

  • Cross-border tax residence and domicile. The interaction of competing residence tests across common-law and civil-law jurisdictions; domicile, deemed-domicile and habitual-residence analysis; the application of inbound and outbound special regimes (UK FIG, Spanish Beckham, US expatriation rules and equivalents in the GCC and Latin America); pre-arrival and pre-departure planning for individuals moving between the UK, the EU, the United States, the Gulf and Latin America.
  • International tax for individuals and families. Wealth and solidarity taxes where they apply; non-resident income and capital gains tax on locally-situs assets; the allocation of taxing rights under double tax treaties; tax inspections, audits and voluntary disclosure procedures across the jurisdictions in which the family is exposed.
  • Succession and estate planning. Multi-jurisdictional wills and the use of choice-of-law clauses, including under EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 and equivalent private international law rules elsewhere; the interaction of common-law testamentary freedom with civil-law forced heirship and Sharia-influenced succession regimes; regional and federal variations in inheritance and gift tax across Spain, the United States, GCC jurisdictions and Latin America.
  • Cross-border probate and estate administration. Coordination of grants of representation, judicial declarations of heirs and their civil-law equivalents across the jurisdictions in which the deceased held assets; recognition of foreign personal representatives; the treatment of common-law trusts in jurisdictions that have not ratified the Hague Trusts Convention.
  • Family office and trustee advisory. Structuring questions where common-law trusts, civil-law foundations and corporate vehicles hold property across more than one jurisdiction; reporting and disclosure obligations for trustees with beneficiaries resident in different countries; coordination with local tax counsel, fiduciaries and notaries in each affected jurisdiction.
  • Residency and relocation planning. Inbound and outbound residency routes across the UK, Spain and the wider EU, the United States, GCC jurisdictions and Latin America, planned as part of a coherent corridor strategy rather than as a single-country application.
  • Contentious matters with a private client interface. Cross-border probate and trust disputes, contested matrimonial finance with multi-jurisdictional assets, and the private client side of civil fraud and asset-recovery proceedings — instructed alongside Outline Chambers’ Civil Fraud team where appropriate.

What distinguishes the practice

One instruction, three jurisdictions. Fernando holds direct rights of audience and full professional capacity in England and Wales and in Spain, and is registered to practise in Ireland. A single instruction therefore reaches the relevant jurisdictions without the need to retain separate Spanish or Irish counsel for the issues that genuinely require local-law analysis.

A unique credential at the English Bar. As the first Spanish Abogado called to the Bar of England and Wales, Fernando occupies a position no other counsel currently holds. For instructing solicitors and family offices, this is not a marketing point — it means a single advisor who can argue a Spanish position in an English court, and an English position to a Spanish authority, on the same matter.

Chambers depth. Practising from Outline Chambers gives Fernando ready access to colleagues in international arbitration, civil fraud, sanctions and extradition — the disciplines that increasingly intersect with HNW private client work.

Working with Fernando

Fernando is instructed in England and Wales through his clerks at Outline Chambers, and is authorised under the Bar’s Public Access scheme to accept instructions directly from professional and lay clients in appropriate cases. In Spain he accepts instructions directly as an Abogado of the Ilustre Colegio de la Abogacía de Madrid (ICAM); in Ireland he is established as a Registered European Lawyer with the Bar of Ireland. Whichever the route, a single instruction is coordinated across the three jurisdictions.


Chambers contact
Mark Cornell, Senior Clerk
Outline Chambers
6 Pump Court (First Floor)
Temple, London EC4Y 7AR
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 3597 7130
24-hour emergency: +44 (0)7519 722 966
W: www.outlinechambers.com