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VIEW ALLlegal 500 2026[No text in field]Monika Byrska - pragmatic, great strategic sense, very personable, adept at managing cases with multiple moving parts, good with non-UK clients, inspires complete confidence.
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Monika Byrska is a bilingual solicitor specialising in trust, will and estate disputes.
Monika advises in all types of private client disputes. This includes: will challenges, Inheritance Act claims, disputes relating to the administration of estates, actions against trustees and personal representatives, promissory estoppel claims, trust disputes between co-owners of a property, and application for directions in administration of trusts and estates. As a STEP-qualified practitioner, she is uniquely qualified to assist with both contentious and non-contentious aspects of trust and estate administration. She therefore also represents personal representatives and trustees advising on the administration of trusts and estates, which are complex or entangled in disputes.
As Monika often meets clients when they are going through their most difficult times, she aims to put them at ease with her straightforward and compassionate approach. She has passion and years of experience in resolving what may seem to be the most impossible disputes over wealth.
She is bilingual and able to service clients in Polish. With a background in linguistics and interpretation, Monika also has a working knowledge of a couple other European languages.
She is a full member of the Association of Contentious Trust and Probate Specialists (ACTAPS) and an associate member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). She holds a STEP Advanced Certificate in Administration of Estates, Advanced Certificate in Cross Border Estates and Advanced Certificate in Trust Disputes. She is also a member of the STEP Contentious Trusts and Estates Special Interest Group and ConTrA, a network for Contentious Trusts Associates.
- Secured funds for a client whose entitlement to benefit from a Lichtenstein Foundation was being denied by opponents in two jurisdictions.
- Successfully challenged four different wills (including three foreign wills) all made in the space of 18 months.
- Acted for trustees in an application aiming to void decisions they have made previously and which have turned out to have hugely disadvantageous effect for the trust and its beneficiaries.
- Assisted an unmarried same-sex partner of a celebrity to access funds the deceased partner would have wanted them to have.
- Removed and replaced an executor who was taking too long to administer the estate.
- Assisted a child born out of wedlock in getting access to funds from the wealth of their father, in circumstances where the wife and other children of the deceased did not know about the extramarital affair.
- "Monika Byrska - pragmatic, great strategic sense, very personable, adept at managing cases with multiple moving parts, good with non-UK clients, inspires complete confidence." Legal 500 2026
- Ranked as a Leading Partner, Contentious Trusts & Probate, Legal 500 2026
- Ranked Band 4, Private Wealth Disputes, Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2025
- "Monika is safe to put in front of clients - she really gains their trust. She also deals with a lot of the detail in cases - she really gets into it."
Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2025 -
"Monika Byrska is fantastic. She's a real people person, her former life as a translator helps her. She has a real insight into people that she deploys brilliantly." Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2025
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"She is very pragmatic and has a handle on wider strategy. She doesn't lose sight of the wood from the trees." Chambers High Net Worth Guide 2025
- Monika was recommended in Citywealth 2025 Leaders List.
- Nominated for the "Rising Star" award, Chambers HNW 2025 awards.
- Listed as Leading Partner, Contentious Trusts & Probate: Tier 2, Legal 500 2025
- "Monika Byrska's affable manner endears her to clients and disarms her opponents, while her fierce intellect and steely determination out-manoeuvers her opponents towards her client's objectives." Legal 500 2025
- Part of the team shortlisted in the Contentious Trusts & Estates Team of the Year category for the Chambers High Net Worth Awards 2024
- Ranked Up and Coming, Private Wealth Disputes, Chambers High Net Worth 2024
- "Monika Byrska combines excellent technical trusts knowledge with empathy, humour and a properly human touch." Chambers High Net Worth 2024
- "She's very quick, she has a great analytical and strategic skills, and it is a pleasure to work with her. I like how she thinks out of the box." Chambers High Net Worth 2024
- Listed as Leading Individual, Private client: Contentious Trusts and Probate, Legal 500 2024
- "Monika Byrska is a fantastic hire. She is one of the best estates and trusts litigators practicing today." Legal 500 2024
- "Monika combines a deep knowledge of estates and trusts litigation and administration with thorough forensic analysis, excellent judgment and devastating negotiating prowess." Legal 500 2024
- Speaker at TL4 NextGen Dublin 2024
- Speaker at the 2024 Practitioners’ Forum on Stress Testing Trust Structures
- Speaker at ACTAPS Lunchtime Lecture 2023
- Speaker at TL4 Contentious Probate and Inheritance Claims - Death in the Modern Age 2023
- Speaker at TL4 3rd Annual Private Client conference Jersey 2023
Monika has a love of languages and also enjoys dance and hiking.