About
We sat on both sides of the desk.
Six Clerks exists because the same trust gets stuck at every institution it touches, and because the people on both sides of that desk deserve better.
Ben Spohn, founder
Ben is a real estate and finance lawyer and the founder of Spohn Law, PC, where he advises lenders, banks, fintechs and startups. He was Vice President and Associate General Counsel at First Republic Bank, where he worked on mortgage and commercial lending and ran trust certification from the bank's side. He began his career as a litigator at Reed Smith.
He and his wife have their own family trust, and learned that signing it was only the beginning.
Neil Peretz, co-founder
Neil is a co-founder of Six Clerks and leads Enumero Law, a separate law firm. Enumero represents trustees, not Six Clerks, and provides the legal services on every Six Clerks file under its own engagement letter with each client.
The name · est. 1415
Six clerks. One job: make the record hold.
For more than four centuries, the Six Clerks of Chancery were the sworn officers of the Great Seal and of the Court of Chancery, the court of equity where trust law was born. Bills in equity were filed with them. Grants, commissions and patents that passed the Great Seal ran through their office. They kept the records that let rights and property change hands.
Their office stood on Chancery Lane in London, in a house bought in 1539 and rebuilt in 1778. Parliament abolished the office in 1842. The problem they existed to solve did not go away: a right on paper is only worth something when the institution on the other side of the counter accepts it.
That is our work. A trust is a promise written down. We are in the business of activating trusts: carrying that document to every bank, brokerage and insurer that holds what it is meant to govern, in the form each one requires.
- 1415The Six Clerks, officers of the Great Seal and the Court of Chancery
- 1539The Six Clerks' house on Chancery Lane is purchased
- 1778The clerks move into a new building on the same lane
- 1842Parliament abolishes the office
- TodaySix Clerks connects trusts to the institutions that hold their assets
1539, 1778 and 1842: Braithwaite, The Six Clerks in Chancery (London, 1879). The 1842 Act is 5 & 6 Vict. c. 103.
Talk to us
Trustees can join the early access list online. Institutions, press and partners can reach Ben directly at ben@6clerks.com.