The lawyer who signs your work
Colin Carroll
A lawyer of 20 years' standing — and the fourth generation of his family to practise law since 1888. Every matter we take on is handled and signed personally by him.
Your work is signed personally by Colin Carroll — a dual-qualified solicitor, admitted in both England and Ireland, who has lived and worked on the European continent for twenty-five years. Today he is the registered, insured lawyer with the Ordem dos Advogados (the Portuguese Bar) and the bars of Spain, Italy and France, under EU Directive 98/5/EC, with professional-indemnity insurance in each country of practice.
Why a regulated, insured lawyer is the difference that matters
Across Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, a great deal of what passes for “inheritance help” is done by people who are not lawyers at all — agents and intermediaries who are not regulated and carry no professional-indemnity insurance. For an estate that matters to your family, that is exactly the wrong place to economise. Colin Carroll is the regulated, insured lawyer in all four countries — the person who is personally accountable for the advice and who signs the work. Check the registers →
Both sides of the cross-border problem, in one person
What makes the cross-border work different is that Colin understands both legal worlds from the inside. He began as an Irish and English solicitor — titles he still holds — so he knows the English and Irish probate process — the grant, the executor, the home-country will — as a practitioner. And he is today the registered, insured European lawyer under EU Directive 98/5/EC with the Ordem dos Advogados (the Portuguese Bar) and the equivalent bars of Spain, Italy and France, with professional-indemnity insurance in each. The same person who reads your English will is the local advocate who acts on it abroad — so nothing falls in the gap between a solicitor at home and an agent overseas.
Colin has lived on the continent for twenty-five years — in France, in Spain, in Germany and now in Portugal — and he took his university education not only in Ireland and England but also in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. He spent several years in South America too, and picked up the languages along the way. It adds up to something simple: a lawyer for whom abroad is home.
Recent examples of Colin's work
A flavour of recent instructions. Names and identifying details are always omitted — every client’s file is confidential.
- England · Italy. Instructed by a firm of English solicitors handling their client’s English probate, to deal with the Italian leg — a holiday home and a bank account: confirming the English will covered the Italian assets, filing the Italian succession declaration inside the statutory deadline, re-registering the property and having the bank release the account. The English firm kept its client; the family never travelled.
- England · Portugal. Referred by the family’s English solicitor: UK-based heirs of a British national who died owning an apartment in the Algarve. Confirming which country’s law governs under the EU Succession Regulation, completing the formal recognition of the heirs, filing the tax declaration on time, and registering the property in the heirs’ names — remotely, under a power of attorney.
- England · Spain. Acting for an English widow and her children on a Spanish estate: arranging the Spanish tax numbers early (the step everything else waits on), a power of attorney signed near home so no one had to fly out, the inheritance deed signed before the Spanish notary on their behalf, and the tax return filed with the regional family allowances applied — leaving little or nothing to pay.
- England · Portugal — the tax side. For the UK-based heirs of an Algarve property: checking the value entered in the Portuguese stamp-duty declaration before it was filed — the number that quietly becomes the starting value for capital-gains tax when the property is later sold — confirming the family exemption applied, filing on time, and leaving the heirs a written note of exactly what tax to expect, in which country, if they ever sell.
- Portugal — the conveyance at the end. After a succession completed, selling the inherited house: contract to completion with the Portuguese notary, the buyer’s deposit and completion funds paid direct (the firm holds no client money), the sale-year tax return prepared for each non-resident heir, and the proceeds released to the family — the file closed with the tax done, not left behind.
Most of the work is exactly that straightforward. Sometimes it is not:
- Spain · Ireland. Working alongside a Dublin solicitor for a vulnerable Irish heir whose Spanish father’s will left him only the bare legal minimum: modelling his true entitlement under Spanish forced-heirship rules, identifying that his late Irish mother’s half of the Spanish family home passes under her Irish estate rather than the Spanish one, and mapping a single notarial deed to settle both estates in one signing — a modest estate, handled proportionately, so the costs never swallowed the inheritance.
- France · Portugal. Advising the heir of a French national who died leaving a Portuguese will — instructed by the client’s own French avocat. The will’s choice of Portuguese law was invalid under the EU Succession Regulation, and which country’s rules govern moves roughly one-sixth of the estate between the two sides of the family. Colin coordinates the analysis across the French and Portuguese proceedings, with a senior Portuguese litigator acting in the Portuguese courts.
Working in your language
Colin works in English and speaks fluent Portuguese, French, Spanish and German — so a British, Irish, German or other international family is dealt with in plain English throughout, while the local notaries, registries and banks are handled in their own language.
And one more thing
In 2026 Colin founded — the online negotiating table where families end stuck inheritances without going near a court: every heir takes a seat from their own home, the law is computed identically for all, and the firm turns the family’s agreement into binding signatures. It is the same succession law this page describes, built into software — launching in Portugal in November 2026, with Spain, Italy and France to follow. accorda.eu →
Four generations of Carroll lawyers, since 1888
Four generations of Carroll lawyers since 1888. It is the kind of continuity you cannot manufacture — and the standard he holds the firm to.
1888
Anthony Carroll
Colin’s great-grandfather — admitted to the Roll of Solicitors, 18 December 1888.
1923
Edmund Carroll
Colin’s grandfather — admitted to the Roll of Solicitors, 29 November 1923.
1964
Brian Carroll
Colin’s father — admitted to the Roll of Solicitors, 25 November 1964.
2007
Colin Carroll
The fourth generation — admitted to the Roll of Solicitors, 6 February 2007; today the lawyer for four countries.
One family, one profession, father to son — confirmed by the Law Society of Ireland.
A non-contentious, fixed-fee practice
Carroll Law is a non-contentious firm: we settle estates, we do not litigate them. Every matter is a fixed fee, agreed in writing before any work begins — never an hourly meter — and where a genuine dispute needs a courtroom, Colin introduces a trusted specialist litigator and continues the non-contentious administration alongside.
We will never email or message you out of the blue asking for payment or bank details.