Profile

Sam Thornton

Partner

I am a partner in our highly rated wills, trust & probate team.

With more than a decade of experience in the field, I advise on a wide range of succession planning and taxation issues, helping to protect family wealth across generations. This typically includes wills and trusts, tax advice, family business planning, mental capacity issues, and estate administration.

I am a full member of the Society for Trust and Estate Professionals having completed the STEP Diploma in 2017. I am also a member of the Law Society Private Client Section.

T 01242 542915 E sam.thornton@willans.co.uk

Message

Key skills

I can help you with:

succession planning for business owners & landed estates
preparation of wills, often incorporating elements of asset protect, tax efficiency & flexibility
advising on powers of attorney
creation & administration of trusts
administration of high value & complex estates
advising on tax efficient gifting including post-death variations & the use of trusts.

Experience highlights

My experience includes:

advising trustees of a longstanding family trusts, including an application under the Variation of Trusts Act
advising on the restructure of a family’s businesses in order secure business relief from inheritance tax
administration of a complex, high value estate with assets in the UK, Switzerland & Poland
establishing flexible family trusts by deed of variation.

Sam Thornton can help you with a range of services

Wills, trusts & probate

More info

Creating a will

More info

Asset protection & trusts

More info

Court of Protection & deputyship

More info

Elderly & vulnerable people

More info

Powers of attorney

More info

Probate

More info

Protecting your business interests

More info

Colleagues in the team

Abigail WaldronBA (Hons)

Private client executive

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Alex GriffithsBA (Hons), MA

Trainee solicitor

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Eliza Senior-FellowsLLB (Hons), LLM

Solicitor

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Evie ClaridgeLLB (Hons), LLM

Solicitor

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Jade Domone (she/her)LLB (Hons)

Paralegal

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Janine GuthrieFCILEx, TEP

Senior associate, chartered legal executive

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Jennifer CockettLLB (Hons)

Senior associate, solicitor

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Laura StoneLLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Wills, trusts & probate, Inheritance & trusts disputes

View profile
Leah VincentLLB (Hons), LLM, TEP

Associate, solicitor

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Lucy SwiftBA (Hons)

Paralegal

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Rachel SugdenLLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Robert LynnLLB, TEP, MBA

Senior associate, solicitor

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Ruth AppletonFCILEx, TEP

Associate, chartered legal executive

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Simon CookLLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Susie ClayFCILEx

Senior associate, chartered legal executive

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile
Tom O'Riordan (he/him)LLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Wills, trusts & probate

View profile

Resources To Help

Articles from Sam Thornton

Visit Hub

Autumn budget 2026: How will it affect business owners, agriculture & pensions?

Wills, trusts & probate

Our private client experts take a look at how the 2026 autumn budget might affect you and your plans for your estate. Andy Burnham and John Healey’s first budget –…

Cookie	Duration	Description
__cf_bm	30 minutes	This cookie, set by Cloudflare, is used to support Cloudflare Bot Management.
mgref	1 year	This cookie is set by Eventbrite to deliver content tailored to the end user's interests and improve content creation. It is also used for event-booking purposes.
yt-player-headers-readable	never	The yt-player-headers-readable cookie is used by YouTube to store user preferences related to video playback and interface, enhancing the user's viewing experience.
yt-remote-cast-installed	session	The yt-remote-cast-installed cookie is used to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-connected-devices	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-device-id	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's video preferences using embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-fast-check-period	session	The yt-remote-fast-check-period cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences for embedded YouTube videos.
yt-remote-session-app	session	The yt-remote-session-app cookie is used by YouTube to store user preferences and information about the interface of the embedded YouTube video player.
yt-remote-session-name	session	The yt-remote-session-name cookie is used by YouTube to store the user's video player preferences using embedded YouTube video.
ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY	never	The cookie ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY is used by YouTube to store the last search result entry that was clicked by the user. This information is used to improve the user experience by providing more relevant search results in the future.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_ga	2 years	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat	1 minute	This cookie is installed by Google Universal Analytics to restrain request rate and thus limit the collection of data on high traffic sites.
_gid	1 day	Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
_s	1 year	This cookie is associated with Shopify's analytics suite.
G	1 year	Cookie used to facilitate the translation into the preferred language of the visitor.
vuid	2 years	Vimeo installs this cookie to collect tracking information by setting a unique ID to embed videos to the website.

Cookie	Duration	Description
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	6 months	YouTube sets this cookie to measure bandwidth, determining whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA	6 months	YouTube sets this cookie to store the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.
YSC	session	Youtube sets this cookie to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.

Cookie	Duration	Description
debug	never	No description available.
SESSION	session	Description is currently not available.

Let us help you

Let us help you

Let us help you

Let us help you

Straight to your inbox

Profile

Sam Thornton

Partner

Key skills

Experience highlights

Sam Thornton can help you with a range of services

Wills, trusts & probate

Creating a will

Asset protection & trusts

Court of Protection & deputyship

Elderly & vulnerable people

Powers of attorney

Probate

Protecting your business interests

Abigail WaldronBA (Hons)

Private client executive

Alex GriffithsBA (Hons), MA

Trainee solicitor

Eliza Senior-FellowsLLB (Hons), LLM

Solicitor

Evie ClaridgeLLB (Hons), LLM

Solicitor

Jade Domone (she/her)LLB (Hons)

Paralegal

Janine GuthrieFCILEx, TEP

Senior associate, chartered legal executive

Jennifer CockettLLB (Hons)

Senior associate, solicitor

Laura StoneLLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Leah VincentLLB (Hons), LLM, TEP

Associate, solicitor

Lucy SwiftBA (Hons)

Paralegal

Rachel SugdenLLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Robert LynnLLB, TEP, MBA

Senior associate, solicitor

Ruth AppletonFCILEx, TEP

Associate, chartered legal executive

Simon CookLLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Susie ClayFCILEx

Senior associate, chartered legal executive

Tom O'Riordan (he/him)LLB (Hons), TEP

Partner

Resources To Help

Articles from Sam Thornton

Autumn budget 2026: How will it affect business owners, agriculture & pensions?

Sam Thornton BA (Hons), LLB, TEP

Partner

Send me a message