Top Ten Family Lawyers

One of the family law greats – she became Britain’s first female (and the youngest ever) senior partner of a City law firm in 1998 – Diana Parker has been at the top of her game for more than 30 years now.

The charismatic Parker has a particularly strong reputation for her strategic negotiation of financial settlements for UHNWs out of court and out of the press. It’s all about striking a fine balance at a time when people are prone to be in denial and self-deluding.

‘That’s why a lawyer’s job is so tricky. You have to constantly be providing a reality check,’ she explains.

Parker has been behind some of the best-known family law cases, including the 2006 House of Lords decision Miller and McFarlane and the Court of Appeal cases of Marano, Vaughan and Tchenguiz v Imerman. Her cases are invariably vast – including Britain’s first billion-pound divorce, in which she spared Chris Hohn’s business from his final settlement.

‘Getting the best financial settlement is ultimately why I tend to be instructed, and I’m good at it,’ she explains. ‘You may think it’s a shame, but frankly in big-money cases everyone has been very commercial and strategic building up the money, so you have to be equally so in the division of it. I’m also getting the best settlement without raping and pillaging.’