Reported cases

​In brief:  Proceedings commenced initially by the father (“F”) in respect of his daughter, a young woman aged 20 (named ‘Lilia’ in the judgment), who had attempted suicide.  Very sadly, this had resulted in a catastrophic brain injury leading to a prolonged disorder of consciousness, from which she had not emerged and remained in a vegetative state. 

The Leeds team represented the husband in a successful challenge to the wife’s claim to bring financial proceedings after a foreign divorce.

Our Manchester team represented the mother in a complex children case where the mother had moved with the children to Canada with the father’s consent.

Our Birmingham team represented the husband in a complex case involving the Court of Appeal clarifying judges’ power when dealing with an appeal.

Rose-Marie Drury acted for the successful applicant in a case concerning the effect of a clinic’s internal consent form where a same-sex couple had used donor sperm to conceive a child. 

Philip Way represented the husband in complex financial proceedings which involved a multi-million pound shareholding in a quoted company.

Philip Way acted for the husband in a complex financial proceedings case where the family’s substantial wealth all came from the husband’s father either by way of gift or inheritance.

Joanna Grandfield and Rose-Marie Drury represented the fertility clinic, Bourn Hall, in one of seven conjoined cases dealing with declarations of parentage in circumstances where consent forms to fertility treatment had either been lost or had been completed incorrectly.

We represented the third party intervener, the fertility clinic, in a difficult case where the non-birth mother of twins could not be declared a legal parent because of failures in the processes to obtain adequate consent to fertility treatment.

Philip Way represented the wife, successfully obtaining maintenance pending suit for her in a complex multi-million pound, multi-jurisdictional claim.

Nigel Shepherd and Nicola Rowlings represented Resolution, the largest family justice organisation, on a pro bono basis at the Supreme Court hearing of Owens v Owens (Resolution intervening).

Rose-Marie Drury represented the surrogate mother (on a pro bono basis) in a case that led to a significant change in the law for single parents seeking to have a child with the help of a surrogate.

Nigel Shepherd and Joanna Grandfield represented the husband in the first reported case dealing with the attendance of media representatives at financial proceedings hearings following the introduction of new rules allowing the media access to these hearings. The case took place on the day the rules came into force.

Nigel Shepherd and Rose-Marie Drury represented the father, a high-profile individual, in long-running and highly-conflicted multi-jurisdictional children proceedings.

Rose-Marie Drury represented the surrogate mother (on a pro bono basis) in a case that established it is possible for a parental order to be made in favour of separated unmarried intended parents, where the intended parents are no longer living together.

Rose-Marie Drury acted for the fertility clinic, Bourn Hall, in PQ v RS and others (Legal Parenthood: Written Consent) [2019] EWFC 65, a case which concerned consent to legal parenthood where one parent was seeking to prevent the other from acquiring legal parenthood based on their behaviour.

Katherine Kennedy represented the wife and successfully defended a challenge to the financial settlement based on the wife’s remarriage seven months after the settlement had been agreed.

Caitlin Jenkins represented the beneficiaries of substantial Jersey trusts that were being challenged by the wife in highly contested financial proceedings.

The Birmingham team represented the father in successfully defending an application to move existing Dutch children proceedings to England in circumstances where the father and child were living in the Netherlands and there were no good reasons for the transfer.