Emma is a specialist family and matrimonial lawyer with over 30 years’ experience advising on all family matters, including complex and financial disputes, children matters and prenuptial agreements. She has particular expertise in cases with an international element and/or substantial assets or acting for clients who live abroad or wish to relocate to another jurisdiction.
Emma’s clients include business professionals, those in the public eye, members of British and foreign aristocracy and their spouses/partners. She also has a wide-ranging network of financial advisors, pension and tax experts, forensic accountants and lawyers in foreign jurisdictions with whom she frequently works.
Emma is a Resolution accredited mediator, a mediation consultant (PPC), a trained collaborative lawyer and past Chair of Resolution’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.
“Emma’s advice was always top quality in information, tactics and action. I thoroughly recommend her.”
Finance and Children Client 2020
“Emma was always considered, thorough, fair and compassionate. Her conciliatory and professional approach suited my situation well.”
Divorce and Finance Client 2021
“We could not have resolved matters without Emma. She was the voice of reason and enabled us to sort out our finances without the need to litigate through court.”
Mediation Clients 2021
“Emma was excellent – she always listened to and worked with what was important to me and I felt safe in her hands.”
Divorce and Finance Client 2022
“Emma gets straight to the issues and sorts them out constructively and pragmatically with minimum stress and cost.”
Divorce and Finance Client 2023
“Emma was a wonderful mediator. She knew what was important to us and guided us through to a resolution which we both considered to be fair for us and our son.”
Mediation Clients 2023
“Emma was my rock throughout my divorce. She was calm and reassuring and enabled me to achieve a fair outcome in an amicable and pragmatic way.”
Collaborative Client 2023
“We had a ‘good’ divorce with Emma who helped us mediate through our issues in a very positive way with importance always being given to our child.”
Mediation Clients 2023
Expertise
- Family law
- Collaborative law
- Complex financial disputes
- Children matters
- Prenuptial agreements
- Mediation
- Divorce and dissolution of civil partnerships
- Division of finances on divorce, separation and nullity
- Children disputes including child arrangements orders, prohibited steps orders, and specific issues orders
- International child abduction
- Relocation abroad with children
- Property disputes between unmarried couples and related civil litigation under Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996 (TLATA).
- Post-nuptial agreements
- Separation agreements
- Cohabitation agreements
- Non-molestation and occupation orders
- Interim financial remedy applications on divorce
- Section 37 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 proceedings and freezing injunctions
- Part III applications under Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984
- Maintenance pending suit
- Enforcement of financial orders
- Set aside applications
- Barder applications
- Notice to show cause applications
- Private FDRs
- Arbitration
Experience
Division of finances on divorce
- Acted for a number of chief executives of corporations and titled clients where the assets have involved overseas properties and assets in excess of £30m.
- Represented the wife of a wealthy businessman with properties in Spain, France and the US, and assets in excess of £60m.
- Acted for a musician in a high-profile band on divorce with assets in excess of £20m.
- Acted for the spouse of a titled husband where the assets exceeded £1b.
- Litigated and represented a wife in Section 37 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 proceedings concerning avoidance of disposition of a large London property.
- Successfully applied to set aside an order on behalf of a former husband where the application made by the wife was an abuse of the court’s process.
Children
- Acted for a wife in her relocation proceedings to South Africa with the children, as well as relocations to Spain, Canada and other parts of the UK.
- Acted for a number of fathers seeking a joint “lives with” order.
- Acted for mothers and fathers in parental alienation cases.
- Acted for mothers and fathers in child abduction matters and having children successfully returned to their country of habitual residence.
- Acted for mothers and fathers in relation to prohibited steps orders, preventing the removal of children from this jurisdiction.
- Acted for mothers and fathers on specific issue matters including where a child should be educated.
Pre-marital agreements / wealth protection agreements
- Represented a wealthy French businessman with assets exceeding £50m on a pre-marital agreement.
- Acted for a wife on a pre-marital agreement where the assets of her husband and his overseas family exceeded $1b.
- Represented the wife marrying into the family of owners of a well-known company worth around £3.5b.
- Acted for the wife marrying a high-profile footballer on their pre-marital agreement.
- Represented the husband owning a significant property business with assets in excess of £30m on his pre-marital agreement.
Cohabitation
- Acted for a claimant in a same-sex cohabitation dispute involving a high-profile business.
- Represented a cohabitee in a complex cohabitation dispute involving a number of London properties.
- Drafted a number of cohabitation agreements for business people and their partners to protect assets and property.
- Acted in numerous cohabitation disputes involving property and resolved them without the need for litigation.
- Acted for a number of cohabitees in relation to parental responsibility orders.
Mediation
- Mediated high-profile couples so as to ensure their names remain out of the press.
- Mediated with high-conflict couples and undertook shuttle mediation to ensure overall resolution.
- Mediated complex financial arrangements on divorce often involving foreign assets.
- Mediated complex children arrangements on divorce and separation and arranged on occasion for children to be seen in mediation as well as mediating relocation cases involving children.
- Mediated pre-marital agreements and post-marital agreements so that both clients could appreciate and discuss together their anxieties and concerns with the help of the mediator.
Reported cases
- Re: M (abduction: non-convention country) – Case Law VLEX 792937289
- Re: M (minors) (contact) – Case Law VLEX 806144765
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers
Member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
“A very good mediator who is very down-to-earth, sensible and thoughtful.”
Chambers 2016
“Is very good, extremely nice and has a kind and gentle manner about her.”
Chambers HNW 2016
“She does a lot of collaborative law so you would go to her if you want to settle before litigation, she is very good at that, she is a very safe pair of hands.”
Chambers HNW 2016
“Really down to earth, so diligent and so hard-working. Judge good at resolving cases.”
Chambers HNW 2017
“She has a really good reputation for her mediation and collaborative approach. She’s a very sensible and knowledgeable advocate. She’s very bright, a safe pair of hands and she provides a very good service to her clients.”
Chambers Global HNW 2018
“Highly intelligent.”
The Legal 500 2018
“A very sensible and knowledgeable advocate.” –
Chambers 2019
Recognised by Chambers UK & HNW guides for family law including ADR and Finances from 2003 to 2024
“Emma is one of the top London mediators. She is particularly calming and grounded, and therefore the people that go to her and work with her are struck by how calm and authoritative she is. She is such a safe pair of hands in mediation as she is able to do whatever it takes and thinks outside of the box.”
Chambers 2024
Recommended in The Legal 500 2024 Private Client: Family
“Gets the best out of people, and her kindness and empathy are appreciated by clients and colleagues.”
The Legal 500 2024
Contributing author to the Resolution Handbook (first published in 2007 (chapter on Alternative Dispute Resolution) and the Resolution Family Disputes Handbook published in 2020
Career
Emma qualified as a solicitor in 1993. Prior to joining Keystone Law, she worked at the following firms:
- Alexiou Fisher Philipps
- Gordon Dadds
- Penningtons