Navigating family law issues can be particularly complex for high-net-worth individuals at what is often a difficult and emotional time. The high-value nature of a client’s divorce or separation, as well as international considerations, requires legal practitioners with years of industry experience.
Spear’s leading family barristers offer unparalleled service tailored to the unique needs of HNW clients, addressing their legal, financial and personal considerations.
These elite barristers excel in handling high-stakes divorce proceedings and litigation, sophisticated asset divisions and sensitive child custody arrangements. They can also support their clients through arbitration where appropriate. The best specialists also have a strong understanding about how the nature of HNW divorce is changing in the modern world, and are able to support their clients with international surrogacy arrangements, cohabitation issues and nuptial agreements. They are also able to work with a client’s other advisers, including their solicitor.
Our full list of family law barristers can be read below, along with insights into our research process and profiles of some of the leading legal players.
Explore the other rankings within the 2025 Spear’s Family Law Indices:
- The best family lawyers
- The best divorce consultancy & support services
- The best litigation funding providers
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The 2025 Family Law Barristers Index comprises several new names from 1 Hare Court, notably Nichola Gray KC who is co-head of chambers and the first woman in its history to hold this position.
This year, the Spear’s Research Unit found that a growing number of KCs are now focusing on non-court dispute resolution (NCDR), including mediation and arbitration, in order to encourage less acrimonious divorces and procedures. This shift reflects a broader trend toward resolving disputes outside of the courtroom, particularly among high-net-worth individuals who often prefer more private and efficient processes.
The trend is also the result of changes to the Family Procedure Rules introduced last year, which placed greater emphasis on encouraging alternative dispute resolution in family law cases.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- The best family law barristers: some names to know
- The best family law barristers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
EaEach featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best family law barristers: some names to know
Jennifer Lee
- Focus: Family and taxation
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: Pump Court Chambers
Jennifer Lee is most commonly found acting for HNW and UHNW clients in matrimonial finance matters. A particular focus of her practice is modern families and surrogacy; she also takes on cases with complex and international tax elements. This financial expertise is further confirmed by Lee being the only family law barrister in the UK to be appointed as a fee-paid judge of the tax chamber.
Legal proceedings can be emotionally draining for clients, as well as technically demanding for their barrister, so it is important to Lee that she strikes a balance between being supportive and not pulling punches. ‘I can be robust where required, but I’m also very cognisant that clients have their needs and there is an emotional element to all of these cases,’ she tells Spear’s.
Read Jennifer Lee’s full profile on Spears500.com
Charles Hale KC
- Focus: Children law and financial disputes
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: 4PB
‘He is a KC at the top of his game and very highly regarded,’ one senior family lawyer tells Spear’s of Charles Hale KC. The eminent silk serves as joint head of chambers at 4PB and is regularly instructed in both children and finance matters by the UHNW community, for good reason.
With a reputation for dealing with the most complex cases, Hale has appeared at many international family conferences across the globe, giving lectures on finance cases, international children cases and trusts cases.
Read Charles Hale KC’s full profile on Spears500.com
Alexis Campbell KC
- Focus: Divorce and matrimonial finance
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: 29 Bedford Row
A specialist in divorce and matrimonial finance claims, Alexis Campbell is joint head of chambers (alongside Nicholas Allen KC) at 29 Bedford Row. Praised by peers for her fierce intelligence and appetite for complex disputes, her practice comprises financial remedy cases and children work, mainly cases involving relocation.
A silk since 2017, her dual style suits the modern realities of family law: she is an empathetic and flexible negotiator and, where necessary, a tough litigator. She is a qualified arbitrator (finance) through the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators, and is regularly instructed to conduct private financial dispute resolutions.
Read Alexis Campbell KC’s full profile on Spears500.com
James Roberts KC
- Focus: Complex financial remedy cases
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: 1 King’s Bench Walk
James Roberts KC, head of chambers at 1 King’s Bench Walk, is commended by clients and fellow solicitors alike.
Hailed as ‘approachable and responsive’ and a ‘brilliant advocate who has the ears of judges’, the experienced barrister has acted on a number of high-profile family law cases, many of which involve figures in the public eye and/or the division of UHNW assets in excess of £100 million.
Read James Roberts KC’s full profile on Spears500.com
Marina Faggionato
- Focus: Children law and financial disputes
- Ranking: Recommended
- Firm: QEB
‘She is always meticulously prepared, and clients love her attention to detail,’ says a senior family lawyer of Marina Faggionato of QEB. ‘She has the key skills of empathy with clients and an intuitive understanding of how to persuade them to follow her strategic advice,’ is the verdict of another.
A fluent French speaker, Faggionato’s practice covers the entire spectrum of family work, with particular emphasis on the financial aspects of divorce as well as disputes involving children (including Schedule 1 provision, abduction and relocation cases). She has argued in front of courts of all levels, up to and including the Court of Appeal, and is increasingly led by the most senior silks within her chambers.
Read Marina Faggionato’s full profile on Spears500.com
William Tyler KC
- Focus: Cross-border children law
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: The 36 Group
William Tyler KC of The 36 Group is a leading family law barrister, having received silk in 2014 and taking up a second term as joint head of chambers in 2023. He appears in courts around the country, concentrating on children law and cases with international elements.
As well as his practice with clients in England and Wales, he is a high bailiff and Deemster (high court judge) in the Isle of Man, and a recorder in the family court.
Read William Tyler KC’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best family law barristers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
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