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Divorce Law
OCTOBER 2013
Looking further into the legal issues that can arise within divorce, we speak to Elizabeth Hicks, a Partner in the Family Team at Irwin Mitchell LLP.
Please introduce yourself, your role and your firm.
As well as being a partner at Irwin Mitchell, I am also a fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (IAML) and a trained collaborative lawyer (which is a way of resolving family disputes without going to court). I am also an active member of Resolution which is a national organisation of 6500 members which promotes trying to resolve family disputes in a non aggressive and cost effective manner, and always putting children’s interests first.
Irwin Mitchell LLP has a national family team of over 30 lawyers situated in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and London. We have a number of qualified mediators, collaborative lawyers and an arbitrator.
At Irwin Mitchell we advise our clients on the legal, financial and practical implications of all aspects of relationship breakdown including divorce, civil partnership dissolution and cohabitation disputes. We have particular expertise in dealing with cases with an international element.
We also advise parents where there is a dispute about their children. The team also acts for clients who need advice on pre-marital
agreements, pre-civil partnership agreements and living together contracts.
What are the main challenges you face when working on a divorce case?
Dealing with the breakdown of a marriage or relationship is one of the most emotionally stressful periods of a person’s life. Helping to guide our clients through these difficult times in a caring and professional manner, listening to their needs and offering pragmatic advice is one of the key challenges of being a family lawyer.
At Irwin Mitchell we also deal with a number of internationally-based clients meaning that we need to able to advise on complex financial, taxation and jurisdictional issues. Having a number of the team who are Fellows of the IAML means that we have the ability and expertise to provide specialist international legal advice in addition to having access to an expert panel of professional advisors across the globe.
How do you navigate these issues?
It is essential to be empathetic while at the same time offering practical solutions and advice. We aim to deal with all our cases in a swift, pragmatic and cost-effective way. The
fact that a number of the team are trained in different methods of dispute resolution means that we can offer our clients a number of different solutions. All team members undergo regular essential skills training to ensure that the clients always feel that they are being listened to in a compassionate manner while knowing that we will always fight their corner if the need arises.
Potentially, how complicated can divorce cases get?
Very! We often deal with cases involving offshore trusts and corporate entities and the process of unravelling someone’s financial affairs can be extremely complex. Furthermore, it is not unheard of for a spouse to obscure or even try and withhold financial information – which can result in having to take urgent court action to protect our client’s interests. In international cases, it is essential to be able to call on a network of foreign lawyers to give immediate advice on the likely financial outcome as the country where the divorce is initiated can have huge financial ramifications for the couple – and there are often times when a divorce could take place in two or more countries and it is vital to issue proceedings quickly in order to secure the jurisdiction of Eng- land and Wales.