Hale says family law is unique in the array of cases it throws up, ‘but it always involves people, which is why I’ve been attracted to it’. Jurisdictional variation is another attraction; he mentions the interpretations of ‘wardship’ under Sharia and Common Law: ‘It becomes very difficult, very complicated, very interesting.’
That intellectual relish has put him at the forefront of the family courts. Last year he presented three separate cases at the Court of Appeal on consecutive days, being unique as the only QC to get reported cases in both finance and children. That expertise has also seen him called to the Cayman Islands to sit as a private judge in a financial dispute resolution.