‘If I found myself divorcing, Tom is the London solicitor I would choose. [He is] absolutely first-class,’ says a leading QC of Tom Amlot, family lawyer and partner at AFP. An accredited mediator and collaborative lawyer, the former commercial litigator enjoys tackling matters across different disciplines and areas of law. His recent successes include acting for the husband in a new High Court decision on the relevance of pre-acquired wealth. No wonder clients are effusive. Is London still the divorce capital of the world, we ask him? A blunt ‘yes’. Why? ‘It is the ‘most generous-paying jurisdiction’ for financially weaker parties, simple as that.

It’s been a particularly busy time for Camilla Baldwin, who’s not only fighting a highly litigious battle involving a slew of football clubs, banks and factories, but is also advising on the legal aspects of the upcoming episodes of BBC1’s divorce drama The Split. ‘There was a lot of litigation about whether there was a foreign divorce, whether there’s more money, for days on end in the High Court,’ she says. Does her dabble in TV (albeit as a consultant)  provide some relief, then? ‘It’s great fun – I’m really enjoying that,’ she laughs. Many of the fictional drama’s tales are inspired by the ‘dysfunctional lives’ she observes in her career. ‘People who have a lot of money can be quite ruthless – it’s quite disappointing,’ she laments.

Complexity is enticing and even essential for Nicholas Bennett, who specialises in cases involving companies, trusts and tough jurisdiction battles. Privacy is also often a concern for his clients. ‘Most judges agree that these are essentially private matters,’ he says, ‘but Mr Justice Holman takes a different view – he believes in justice being seen to be done.’ The lack of consistency means ‘we can’t properly advise clients about the risks of the process. Open justice is a fine principle, but I’m not sure it really works in this context.’ He adds that the courts are truly ‘in crisis’, so the very wealthy often want to ‘bypass the system completely’ through arbitration.

A nominee for Spear’s 2018 Family Lawyer of the Year, Zoe Bloom was the first solicitor specialising in family matters to join Keystone Law. ‘I needed them to accept their model would work for family law, so I gave them a business plan,’ she says. She started work the next week and has since recruited a team of five family solicitors. Describing herself as part of the ‘new school’, she focuses on outcome rather than process. ‘I am often instructed by clients who are fed up with their cases drifting along aimlessly without strategy. We call it “gentleman’s drift” and I see it far too often, particularly from clients who have previously instructed some of the more traditional practices.’

‘Every client has their own unique story to tell,’ says Emily Brand, partner at Boodle Hatfield. ‘It’s our job to unpick the details and get the best results.’ A specialist in complex financial proceedings, Brand has a proven track record of dealing with an international HNW clientele. She is expert at advising company owners, entrepreneurs and their spouses on how to preserve their wealth by way of pre- and postnuptial agreements and how best to unlock value from business assets upon separation. ‘We have an unpretentious approach,’ she says. ‘We’re always there for our clients and can leverage expertise from other parts of the firm where necessary.’

Peter Burgess and Antonia Mee, both ex-Withers, joined forces to form a compelling business. It’s an offering rubber-stamped by Queen Bees – both Helen Ward and Diana Parker refer clients to them – but excellent value for money with a personal touch. Mee handles ‘the whole gamut of private family law work’ and ‘particularly enjoys private children work’. It’s also an impressively eclectic client base. ‘They are looking for exceptional client service and expertise, but at a price which is more affordable,’ says Burgess. The firm is also fighting for reform of cohabitation and no-fault. ‘Cohabitation reform is an area that really needs to be considered by parliament,’ the pair agree.

It’s all change at Payne Hicks Beach. With Ian Airey stepping down as head of the family department, the firm has opted to appoint co-heads of the family department. It’s an inspired move: Philip McGuirk has a superb reputation, particularly for pre- and postnups, and Rebecca Cockcroft is, says James Stewart, ‘a first-rate lawyer with brilliant people skills’. ‘It is the breadth of the work in the family division that attracts, and the pleasure one derives from being part of a process where, over time, a clearly defined picture emerges from what was once opacity,’ says McGuirk. Cockcroft says, meanwhile: ‘The best part of the job is inspiring trust in a client so they listen and follow your advice.’

Pamela Collis is a partner with a rarefied practice at FLiP. ‘My practice is an eclectic mix of HNW and international cases with a liberal seasoning of extremely unusual legal and factual situations,’ she tells us. Collis regularly handles complex business valuations, cross-border tax issues and jurisdiction issues. She has strong words about the court system: ‘I’ve experienced unprecedented delays in getting cases through the courts. And when we get before a judge, they are under so much pressure that often they don’t listen and sometimes they take shortcuts.’ And on the political situation? ‘I have excellent precedents for a “Brexit” prenup!’, she says.

A 2018 nominee for Spear’s Family Lawyer of the Year, Joanne Edwards heads a growing department at Forsters. ‘This year has been absolutely phenomenal,’ she says, pointing also to the arrival of Simon Blain and Matthew Brundson Tully. The firm is ideally positioned. Edwards’ profile – she is highly visible in the media – has grown since moving into a smaller team, but she also benefits from Forsters’ wider private client, corporate and landed estates offerings. Discretion is crucial to Edwards: ‘The HNWs we work with don’t want their cases splashed across the media. So we’re doing quite a lot of private justice, including arbitrations.’

‘In my experience you may have to take it so far down the court route to get to a solution, but matters shouldn’t go all the way to court unless there are serious issues,’ says the impressive Michael Gouriet, a partner at Withers. Gouriet’s cases range from £1 billion-plus matters on behalf of Middle Eastern families to intricate cohabitation matters. On the latter he is bullish: ‘There needs to be reform and there’s so much judicial clamour for reform.’ He is also concerned about the direction of justice. ‘The court processes have been undermined by the government cuts… with fewer judges and fewer court staff and more litigants in person… the court system is overcongested.’

Ellie Hampson-Jones is going great guns as an associate at Penningtons Manches, working on high-stakes reported cases, including one that was heard in the High Court following a four-day final hearing. Before beginning her traineeship in 2013, HampsonJones worked as an executive assistant for the CEO of Cable & Wireless (which has since been bought by Vodafone). ‘It was amazing training, like a mini-MBA,’ she says. ‘It also gives me an unusual insight into my clients’ day jobs.’ Having previously worked at a law firm in Los Angeles, she is also well placed to advise on Anglo-US issues.

Wedlake Bell’s Charmaine Hast is a specialist in high-profile cases, but privacy is always paramount. ‘If it’s a particularly high-profile case, we pride ourselves on confidentiality during this stressful time and even take the client out through a separate entrance to avoid the press,’ she says. Hast established the firm’s family law department in 2011, and it has quickly become one of the capital’s most feared. ‘More than a few billionaires have come by with very complex cases,’ she says. Hast is one of a handful of family law arbitrators, allowing her to hand down binding judgments in financial matters. Her favourite part of the job? ‘Winning,’ she says, beaming.

‘Never cut what you can untie’ is a quote from Joseph Joubert, but it’s also something of a mantra for Emma Hatley, Spear’s Family Lawyer of the Year in 2017. In the past year, Hatley has been involved in several complex cases, involving some of the most difficult and contentious issues to come across the desk of a family lawyer, all of which she has handled with characteristic grace and pragmatism. If there is one area she could change about the law, she says it would be ‘to recast the approach of the courts to spousal maintenance. There is a great need to provide greater clarity in this highly discretionary area, especially in respect of duration.’

Henry Hood is the larger-than-life head of Hunters’ family law department – a six-partner offering which is making serious inroads into the market. Once known as a firm with a strong rural presence, Hunters now acts for an eclectic range of clients, including professionals and entrepreneurs. ‘Our clients span the spectrum from vast wealth to those where money is really tight, and we are aware of the irony that the latter are often the more difficult,’ says Hood. This is a settlement-oriented lawyer who works in a close-knit team. And big-name clients keep coming the firm’s way, including one of the adult children in the Hagen (Viking Cruises) litigation.

‘Anne-Marie’s name is on just about every list of the top family lawyers,’ fellow Dawson Cornwell partner Kate Allen tells Spear’s as we try to track down the busy lawyer. Hutchinson acts in all areas of family law, specialising in child abduction, forced child marriages, and international surrogacy. ‘Celebrities and HNWs lead very complicated lives. You ask them where they live and they say, “Which month?”’ Hutchinson says when we catch up. ‘You end up having meetings with their trust adviser, tax adviser, accountant…’ Recently Hutchinson has acted on behalf of teenagers whose parents are divorcing: ‘Their opinions are very important, and they certainly know their own minds.’

‘I specialise in cases of unusual complexity, in particular high value, or very high-value, financial remedy claims,’ says James Freeman. This workload includes cases with an Anglo-French or Swiss element. Freeman also has a specialism acting for trustees. ‘I don’t tend to give names of any clients,’ he tells us. ‘I act for some household names, as well as others who are very anxious not to become household names, especially as a result of their divorce.’ What unites these individuals? ‘Every client is different but, generally speaking, mine want technical excellence, clear guidance, a firm hand from time to time, basic humanity and sometimes a streak of humour.’

James Ferguson leads the department at Boodle Hatfield, where he presided over a 33 per cent boost in revenue in 2018. He’s quick to heap praise on his team. ‘This was achieved not just by our hugely talented and expanding team of home-grown associates working more hours, but by us acquiring more multi-million-pound HNW clients with more complex cases to resolve,’ he says. One 2018 case yielded a seven-figure payout for a client after a prenup was overturned at the High Court. ‘Things like this don’t happen very often,’ he says. ‘It was a hard-fought and very difficult case that we are immensely proud of having won.’

‘It’s time we cracked on and made prenups binding’, Deborah Jeff, founder and head of Seddons’ family department, tells Spear’s. ‘If you can say what happens on death in your will, why shouldn’t you be able to say what happens on divorce in your prenup?’ When it comes to the great hive of London divorce, she says, ‘it’s the inter-human skills which set apart those that excel in what they do in our niche of the legal profession.’ Jeff’s attention to the psychological impact of clients’ circumstances distinguishes her from other family lawyers: ‘I’m not aware of any other family lawyer who has taken this approach, and have made it my USP for the benefit of my clients.’

Jane Keir concluded her five-year term as the first female senior partner at Kingsley Napley last April, having played a key part in making the firm one of the most diverse in the industry. ‘We made it work,’ she tells Spear’s. ‘Over 50 per cent of our lawyers are women and we’re proud to be the top law firm in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For.’ December saw the culmination of a major two-year case acting for Aparna Bangur, whose ex-husband was attempting to claim against her family’s wealth in India. The case, she says, ‘is now being used as a warning to “gold-diggers” who think they have an entitlement to the family wealth of the ex by reason of the marriage’.

There are few people in family law more infectiously likeable than Rachael Kelsey. But there’s a razor-sharp mind beneath the charm. ‘Undoubtedly the best family lawyer in Scotland,’ says Charles Russell Speechlys partner William Longrigg. So why family law? Kelsey tells us: ‘Because I am intensely nosy and endlessly fascinated by the gloriously ridiculous, life-affirming, foolish and human things that people do. I like working with people, I love the law and I get bored easily, so what could I possibly have done other than family law?’ It’s a diverse client base, but the Edinburgh-based firm provides ‘judgement, support, technical excellence and pragmatism’.

Carly Kinch is the latest to join the top echelons of divorce at Stewarts, after a swift 12-year transition from paralegal to partner. She’s been involved in ‘complex and high-value’ litigations for clients who expect ‘Rolls-Royce service’ as a standard. Clients have included a telecoms pioneer, the wife of a billionaire diamond merchant, and a family with assets in excess of $3 billion. Kinch describes an acrimonious case worth €250 million, in which there were arguments for ‘special contribution’. A favourable settlement was achieved. ‘It is really only in the truly exceptional cases that arguments of special contribution get any real traction,’ she says.

The news of Suzanne Kingston’s move from Withers to Mills & Reeve emerged just before Spear’s press deadline. Jo Grandfield, the firm’s head of family, is certain the addition of Kingston will take her team ‘to another level’. Kingston’s ability to manage some of the most financially complex and international cases is common knowledge in the family law sphere. ‘She’s a tough negotiator, but constructive and unfailingly pleasant to deal with,’ a source told the firm. Kingston, dubbed as ‘the queen of arbitration’, has three decades of experience. Mills & Reeve says it is thrilled to have her innovation and skills to ‘drive forward’ its dispute resolution offering.

‘The relationship between a family lawyer and their client can be a peculiarly close one,’ says Renato Labi. ‘You need to earn your client’s trust, you need to be emotionally engaged without being emotionally involved, and they need to know that you are going to fight their corner.’ Labi is clear on HFC’s objectives: ‘Our reputation is that we’re more prepared to go to court than others… if we need to get a good settlement – perhaps because of bullying or manipulation – then you need to fight hard.’ In the past year he has also advised offshore trustees on whether a beneficiary’s trust could be ‘attackable’ via the English court system.

Jeremy Levison, founding partner of Levison Meltzer Pigott, is one of the great characters in family law. He is known for his superb art collection: works by the likes of Rose Wylie (see page 86) can be seen in the firm’s offices. ‘My contacts with family lawyers worldwide assist in the successful resolution of a significant proportion of my cases that have an international dimension,’ says Levison, a founder of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. It’s often high-profile work: he counts politicians and sports stars among his clients. Does Levison enjoy the job? Absolutley. ‘Like doctors, we take people at a low ebb and make them better,’ he says.

‘I was trained by and worked for many years with Peter George, one of the best-known family lawyers of his day. His clients loved him and he got wonderful results,’ says William Longrigg, a long-standing star partner at Charles Russell Speechlys. It could also describe Longrigg himself. When Spear’s meets him for lunch he is convivial and excellent company. This is a highly international lawyer, celebrated for his work on behalf of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. Longrigg’s many friendships in the profession testify to his ability to remain calm in the heat of battle. ‘There are of course exceptions, but most of us actually enjoy each other’s company,’ he explains.

Sam Longworth says joining Stewarts in 2007 was the best career decision he’s made. Back then it was a relatively unknown boutique firm. More than a decade on, Longworth reports ‘an exceptional year, with victories in court including the Court of Appeal, a variety of instructions from, clients old and new, ‘some excellent settlements’ and a ‘very high asset’ case worth billions. ‘HNWs have a huge choice,’ he notes, ‘and want to be able to access a variety of advisers.’ As a result, he says family lawyers have to expand their little black books. ‘Your clients still pick up the phone to you when they need someone.’

The head of Farrer’s family and disputes teams has fought many battles, but prenups often provide the toughest challenge in William Massey’s work. ‘You’re treading a bit of a tightrope,’ he says. He describes the challenge of choosing a geographical starting point to begin with. ‘It’s always quite difficult then to marry up them advice in this jurisdiction with the advice that lawyers in other jurisdictions are giving,’ he says. It’s hardly romantic when one is ‘negotiating the terms of a divorce at a time when they’re going to get married’, says Massey, the president of the European charter of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. ‘It’s fascinating, but difficult.’

‘There have been a significant number of large money cases and I’m happy to say that we have successfully achieved settlement in the vast majority,’ says Simon Pigott, co-founder of Levison Meltzer Pigott. Last year was the firm’s 20th anniversary. ‘Despite doubling in size over the years, we have remained true to our founding ethos and have avoided all temptation to be other than a perfectly formed, boutique, 100 per cent family law practice,’ he declares. Clients benefit from Pigott’s sensitivity and tact. ‘Clients come to us with a problem and they are looking for it to go away in the least painful way,’ he says. ‘That’s exactly what we deliver.’

Maggie Rae was preparing for a tour of Easter Island when she picked up a call from Spear’s, at a time when the UK was in Brexit deadlock. ‘I’m not coming back,’ she jokes, before expressing worry over the future of the movement of children across Europe. ‘Will we manage to stay within the Brussels II regime?’ she asks. She describes a complex case involving a 17-year-old under the care of the Irish authorities who failed to find her appropriate placement in Ireland. Rae helped her move to the UK to live with her mother, guided by Brussels II. ‘It safeguards the process – such movements are very infringing on the child’s rights,’ she says, ‘It’ll be a shame if we lose that as well.’

Described by peers as ‘fiercely intelligent and extremely able’, Fiona Read describes her practice as ‘everything from district resolution – so mediation and family arbitration – to highly complex international cases’. ‘Brexit will definitely have an impact on family law,’ says Read, who also serves as a district judge. ‘We’ll be doing a lot of work with lawyers all over the world. It’s going to be quite intellectually stimulating for us, but not much fun for the clients.’ She has seen a ‘very significant’ increase in mediation cases and a fall in general instruction: ‘I think Brexit, and the uncertainty around that, is driving people to either delay or to look into other options.’

‘We’re doing a lot of private work, which we think is the way forward. It’s all about that next-gen narrative. We are different kinds of lawyers,’ says the warm and highly impressive Rosie Schumm, one of the key partners at Forsters. Schumm, who’s also notable for her presentational skills as well as her expertise in prenups and postnups, joined Forsters last year, having previously been a partner at Wedlake Bell. Of late, she has developed a cross-jurisdictional practice, handling cases with a US-UK nexus, and when Spear’s speaks to her she’s about to board a plane for Los Angeles to address a meeting of 300 trust lawyers. ‘That’s become my forte,’ she explains.

Is London still the ‘divorce capital of the world’? It’s a firm yes from Suzanne Todd at Withers, adding that the characteristics of the English legal system that put London at the top of the jurisdiction pile remain in place. She adds that London firms benefit from the ‘expectation’ that our discretionary system in determining what is fair will produce an award that is ‘more bespoke’ and ‘ultimately more generous to the weaker party’. Todd tells Spear’s of a growing number of family law cases where the woman is the breadwinner. To help tackle these issues, she adds that Withers promotes gender equality: ‘More than 40 per cent of our partners worldwide are female.

Raymond Tooth’s name is synonymous with big divorce wins, and last year he didn’t disappoint. He mentions a string of successes, including cases in the Court of Appeal. Despite his track record of acting for the wives of A-list celebrities, he is open to welcoming clients from all walks of life. ‘I feel honoured to assist anybody who wishes to seek my help,’ he says humbly. Susan Apthorp joined Sears Tooth in 2008. Her recent success in Brack v Brack was a proud moment, as she secured a win in the Court of Appeal for a client who was in a ‘seemingly unwinnable’ four-year battle against prenups spanning three jurisdictions.

Joe Vaitilingam boasts more than 20 years as a family lawyer. He started out as a trainee at Hughes Fowler Carruthers, becoming a partner in 2005, before launching Vaitilingam Kay in 2014. ‘Our basic pitch is that you get me and Anne [Kay, formerly of Mishcon de Reya] – 30-plus years at Magic Circle firms – but we’re more modern,’ he says. ‘Our costs are lower than everybody else’s, our rates are lower and so we’re cheaper – but you suffer no loss in quality.’ Cases tend to be in the range of £5-15 million, and highlights have included securing one of the largest known financial awards for housing and maintenance for a child of unmarried parents.

It’s only been two months since Izzy Walsh set up Hall Brown’s branch in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and clients are already streaming in. Many are Russian/CIS HNWs. It’s not always about money, she says, especially where children are involved: ‘They’ve got to co-parent their children, they want to be able to turn up to together to their children’s graduation ceremonies or weddings in 20 years or so.’ Walsh has also worked on divorces where horses are involved. ‘[Horses] are the most unusual assets in the world,’ she says. ‘One day they might be worth several hundred thousand or more, and then they could trip over a blade of grass, break a leg or similar and be worth nothing.’

The energetic Nicholas Westley works across the field from financial disputes to prenups and postnups and private law children work. He also unpicks offshore assets, inter-jurisdictional disputes and complicated asset-holding structures. ‘We are now a firm that has an employment department, property department, tax department – we can now offer advice and input on all these sorts of issues that very regularly come up in the cases that we do,’ he says. Westley joined Harbottle and Lewis in 2017 after stints at QEB and Lee & Thompson. ‘We don’t have a single approach,’ he says. ‘We have to be supremely adaptable to our clients’ needs.’

In a firm known for its role in advancing mediation and settlement, it’s intriguing to find a litigator of such quality as Bradley Williams. Likeable and modest – but with a certain quiet authority – Williams is just the person for offering ‘sound advice and reassurance’. No surprise, then, that it’s been ‘a phenomenally busy 12 months’ for him. This is also a practitioner who understands the difficulty of the bigger picture. ‘The main challenge continues to be the cuts which the courts are having to absorb,’ he says. ‘For the wealthy this is also an opportunity, as private judging and arbitration are on the increase.’

Mariko Wilson trained at Anthony Gold under Kim Beatson, and now at FLiP she acts for HNWs, with ‘a particular interest in the tax and pension aspects of divorce’. Personable and impressive, the senior associate regularly acts for people in the professions. ‘At the moment I have a large number of lawyers, mainly partners at large City firms. They are unimpressed by their lawyer sitting on the fence and are looking for precise, robust and decisive advice,’ she explains. So what makes a good family lawyer? ‘It’s very easy to lose sight of the human impact of our work in the cut and thrust of litigation. Remembering that the other side was once your client’s spouse or is the child’s other parent is crucial.’

Katharine Landells heads up Withers’ European families and family offices group, specialising in stress testing and wealth planning advice from the perspective of securing the succession of wealth across generations. Over the past 12 months she’s been involved in a number of very high-value prenups, putting this rise down to ‘a continuing disenchantment with the uncertainty that our discretionary system provides’, alongside the ‘failure’ to address the need for reform of the law in relation to cohabitants. She adds: ‘A financially weaker party is still  better off married with a restrictive prenup than unmarried.’

Praised by peers for her work on children’s cases, Anna Worwood also advises HNWs on complex financial structures – ‘an unusual combination,’ she says. ‘My HNW clients are City lawyers and other City professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs,’ she says. In the past year Worwood has successfully appealed against a decision to refuse her client (the mother) permission to move with her daughter to Iran, and also resolved a dispute in a highprofile international case. ‘The case involved a marriage of more than 50 years during which the parties had built up assets worth hundreds of millions of pounds while living in Africa,’ she explains.