Mishcon de Reya boosts private offering with new hires

Mishcon de Reya has announced that Marianne Kafena and Idina Glyn have joined the Mishcon Private team as Partners in its London office.

Marianne advises high net worth families, family offices and private businesses based in the Middle East and brings overs 20 years’ experience to the role. She can advise clients in Arabic and French as well as English and was brought up in Amman, Jordan. Marianne joins from Harbottle & Lewis where she was a Partner from 2020. Prior to this, Marianne was a Partner at Farrer & Co for six years.

Idina advises on transactional and advisory property matters alongside onshore tax, trust, succession, charity, super prime central London property matters and art law. Idina joins from Forsters where she was a Senior Associate.

These new Partners add strength and depth to the firm’s private offering and follow the appointment in Asia of Partners Timothy Burns and Wei Zhang who are recognised as leaders for US tax and wealth planning for high net worth clients in Asia. They joined in November 2023 from Withers where they were Partners.

Nick Davis, Partner and Chair of Mishcon Private, commented:

"I am delighted to welcome Marianne and Idina to the Private team at Mishcon de Reya. Their wide-ranging experience and deep technical expertise will bolster our private offering, especially in estates and family business matters where they have significant reputations. Marianne has extensive experience advising families and businesses in the Middle East while Idina has significant expertise in drawing on a range of legal disciplines to find solutions to complex transactional or succession planning challenges, all of which brings strength and depth to our offering in this area.”

Marianne Kafena added:

“I am delighted to join Mishcon de Reya and add to their excellent Private team. There has been a shift in the Middle East as senior family members cede stewardship of their businesses to younger generations, many of whom have been highly educated and gained work experience overseas. I am looking forward to using my skills to complement the work Mishcon de Reya already does to service this new generation of family business owners and individuals and build on the firm’s significant expertise and reputation in private work.”

Idina Glyn commented:

“I am thrilled to be joining the Mishcon de Reya Private team. Many rural businesses, country houses, and landed estates are now owned or managed by those more sensitive to the importance of brand and reputation management; more commercially imaginative; and more willing to embrace new technology for land management. Mishcon de Reya has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most innovative law firms and is one of the best-placed firms to service this new breed of land or business owner. I am looking forward to using my experience and skillset to work with landowners and UHNW individuals to develop Mishcon Private's landed estates practice.”