Children’s Law

Disputes involving children require not only legal expertise but also empathy and understanding. Our City-based Family team brings extensive experience in helping parents navigate these emotionally charged matters with sensitivity, insight and strategic focus.

Wherever possible, we guide clients toward resolution through constructive dialogue, whether via direct negotiation, mediation or Resolution Together approaches, always tailored to the family’s unique needs. When court proceedings are necessary, we act with focus and resolve, ensuring our clients’ priorities remain at the heart of every decision.

We regularly advise on a wide range of child-related matters, including:

• Living arrangements and the residence of the children
• Contact and shared care
• Specific issue orders where parents cannot agree on issues such as medical procedures, changing school and international travel.
• International relocation of children and their families
• Domestic relocation of children and their families
• Prohibited steps orders such as preventing a child from being taken out of the country, changing schools, or changing a child’s name.
• Child abduction and urgent protective measures such as from domestic abuse
• Financial claims for children of unmarried parents (aka Schedule 1 claims) – including housing, lump sums and child support maintenance (HECSA)
• Surrogacy, donor agreements and parental orders
• Paternity disputes, and
• Grandparent contact arrangements.

Recent experience

• Successfully defending a Hague Convention abduction claim where a child had only lived in England for four months.
• Acting for a father in proceedings involving allegations of alcohol misuse.
• Representing a mother in a case involving domestic abuse allegations.
• Representing a father in a dispute involving teenage children with autism, resolving the matter through arbitration, with arrangements tailored to the children’s need for stability.
• Acting for a father married into a high net worth family. Following the family’s relocation to England, we were instructed to ensure children and financial orders obtained in overseas jurisdictions were recognised and enforceable under English law.
• Defending a father in a novel Household Expenses Child Support Award (HECSA) claim exceeding £300,000 annually.

Every family is different. We take the time to understand what matters to you most and create legal solutions that reflect your values, goals and the best interests of your children.

For a confidential, no-obligation call-back from one of our family lawyers, please contact us.