Parents & families 

Experiencing challenging times in your personal and family life is never easy. 

Our family law team regularly support individuals, couples and families on all aspects of family law who are going through a tough and emotional time in their lives. Our skilled team provide straightforward, compassionate advice that is tailored to you and your individual circumstances.

Starting a new relationship 

If you are considering marriage but wish to protect your assets in the event that things don’t work out, our team are able to make the process of entering into a pre-nuptial agreement as easy and straightforward as possible. Likewise, we are able to advise on entering into post-nuptial agreements, which are similar but entered into after the marriage has taken place.

If you are not married or in a civil partnership but living with another person, your legal rights may be limited in the event of a relationship breakdown. We are able to help you protect your rights and assets by advising on co-habitation agreements

Children

Parents

We deal with child arrangements including where children are to live, how often are they to spend time with the non-resident parent, disputes in relation to religious and educational matters e.g., private school or state, religious or non-religious education, etc.

If children are involved when there is a relationship breakdown, it is important to consider access, maintenance payments and other issues relating to how best to care for the child(ren). We can also advise on disputes if communication breaks down between relevant parties.

In addition, we undertake complex children work, for example where there are allegations of sexual abuse, drug misuse, emotional and physical harm, or parental alienation.

International children

We act for parents who

• are trying to remove children from the country whether permanently or for a fixed period;
• are opposing a removal, which often means making urgent applications to prevent the children from leaving the UK and obtaining port alert orders;
• have illegally removed children from another country; and
• are attempting to have their children returned from another country.

Adoption

We also undertake adoption work, where we generally act for a step-parent who wants to formally adopt a child and ‘normalise’ the relationship with a child.

Grandparents/ extended family members

It is a common myth that grandparents/ extended family members have no rights in respect of children. In reality, if a grandparent/ family member is able to demonstrate that they have a close loving bond with the child and that it is in the child’s best interest to spend time with that person, it is highly likely that they will be able to obtain an order from the court making provision for them to spend time with the child. Not many family lawyers undertake this work and often grandparents/ extended family members are given the wrong advice.

SEND and disability law 

SEND law applies to children and young people who have a wide range of additional needs (including special educational needs, disabilities and medical needs) requiring some level of adaption or additional support to access education, as well as possible health, therapy and social care needs. 

We help families to navigate the complex system they are faced with, ensuring every child with SEND is able to reach their potential.

Relationship breakdown

No matter the reason, when a relationship breaks down, we appreciate that you need constructive advice and a considerate approach from your advisers. We undertake divorce and dissolution of civil partnership work and the financial aspects of the separation.

Our typical clients are high-net-worth or ultra-high-net-worth individuals with a complex or varied asset base. We deal with matrimonial finances which often include:

• property portfolios, whether residential rentals or commercial premises (home and abroad);
• significant pensions;
• business interests, including owner-managed businesses or family businesses in which spouses are both partners or directors/ shareholders;
• investment portfolios; 
• unusual but valuable assets, such as vintage cars, art or wine collections, or antique jewellery;
• varied sources of income, which might be generated domestically or abroad; or
• international elements where the assets are spread between England and elsewhere.

Our broad ranging matrimonial finance work includes:

• Financial Remedy Orders – e.g. spousal maintenance, order for sale of the family home, pension splitting, business valuations and preserving those businesses, etc. 
• Variations of Financial Remedy Orders
• Child maintenance issues.

We resolve property disputes matters for separated, unmarried couples. The law is very different to that in divorce and there is no such thing as a common law marriage.