As a top 20 law firm with over 40 specialist lawyers across a network of national offices, the Irwin Mitchell team is regarded as a leading provider of family law services in the UK. We specialise in providing expert advice in all areas of family law from high profile international divorces and financial settlements to children matters, pre-marital agreements and cohabitation disputes. The IM family team has extensive experience in navigating clients through the complexities of their case, offering a sensitive but no-nonsense approach. The size of the team allows us to provide the best advice, efficiently, and without compromise. International Expertise Elizabeth Hicks and John Nicholson from the London office are Fellows of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and regularly undertake international family work. Increasingly our work in the firm’s regional offices also involves an international aspect. Based in City centre offices across the UK we regularly advise international high net worth and high profile individuals. London Elizabeth Hicks and John Nicholson [email protected] [email protected] • Acted for a Greek husband in a jurisdiction dispute between England and Switzerland involving the Lugano Convention in which we were successful in persuading the court that, despite the presence in England of the wife and the children of the marriage, the appropriate forum was Switzerland, whose court was the first seized • Recently brought pressure to bear on a party to a divorce to agree a more moderate settlement than she might have achieved in a contested hearing in England, having persuaded her solicitors that our client’s challenge to English jurisdiction, and the appropriateness of the Czech Republic as a the forum was a credible one • Currently acting in a case in which we have put the wife’s English Domicile in question. Again, the hope is that we will be able to negotiate a more moderate settlement on behalf of the husband, although we are ready to take the case through the courts if that result is not obtained • Acted in the case of Goldstone [2011] EWCA Civ 39 now the leading case on joinder of third party companies to divorce proceedings. This involved bringing into the financial proceedings some 14 respondents, ten of which were either English or foreign companies based in the BVI, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Lichtenstein, and properties in Monaco and Verbier. International Experience in the Regions We have summarised below some of the recent international work undertaken by the partners and teams in the different regions of England and Wales. Manchester Ros Bever Head of the Manchester family team [email protected] • Represented the wife in a big money contested financial remedy case involving numerous joined parties, hostile witnesses, parallel litigation in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and forensic investigations worldwide including Switzerland and the Middle East. Worldwide freezing injunctions were obtained and the matter went to the Court of Appeal three times. At the final hearing in the Family Division of the High Court, Baron J stated that our client was ‘fortunate’ in her choice of legal team. In the Court of Appeal, Thorpe LJ stated ‘I have never seen a [financial] case of greater complexity’ • Represented the Japanese wife on an application in England and Wales for leave to remove a child to Japan which was complicated by neither parent being British and their living in UK by circumstance of employment only. Expert advice was commissioned from Japanese lawyers and subsequent litigation/mediation in Japan was required. Family International Capability Document