Thomson Reuters names eight Keystone Law partners in its Stand-out Lawyers Guide 2026
Andrea James, Andrew Darwin & Anna McKibbin
Richard Collins
Consultant Solicitor
England & Wales
020 3319 3700
richard.collins@keystonelaw.co.uk
“I can’t thank you enough for all your help throughout this process. Your guidance throughout has been very welcomed. Your pragmatism, intellect and efficiency have been outstanding, and I won’t hesitate to recommend you to any of my friends looking for a divorce lawyer.”
- Divorce client
Richard is a highly experienced French- and German-speaking family lawyer who advises domestic and international clients on every aspect of family law including complex financial and business cases, private children issues, cohabitant disputes and cases involving offshore trusts and tracing assets.
Richard specialises in cases which involve depression and mental health and addictive behaviour issues including alcoholism and substance misuse. He has particular expertise in civil partnership cases, UK and foreign child relocation cases, and cross-border jurisdiction disputes.
He also advises those who are not married on disputes over property, child arrangements and financial claims for the maintenance of children.
Richard’s clients are a wide range of professionals in business, law and finance, individuals with private wealth, those in the arts, media and in the public eye and their spouses and partners. While experienced in complex claim litigation, he is also committed to dispute resolution solutions and is a trained collaborative lawyer and mediator.
He is a regular contributor to the media on topical family issues.
Expertise
Richard advises spouses, civil partners, and unmarried couples on finances following separation or divorce, including with pre- and post-nuptial agreements, property disputes, and court applications.
Experience
- Resolved a complex international case with assets in different jurisdictions including offshore trusts.
- Litigated a successful high-value case following asset tracing of assets hidden in different jurisdictions.
- Acted for professionals, their spouses and partners specialising in issues surrounding depression, alcoholism and addictive behaviours and obtained protection orders from the court (non-molestation) and removal from property orders (occupation order).
- Adopted the collaborative law approach and assisted civil partners resolve financial and property issues
- Succeeded for a spouse in a jurisdiction race case where she was awarded significantly more in England that she might have received in the competing European jurisdiction.
Richard advises on private child arrangements, child internal and international relocation applications, change-of-school applications, and child abduction.
Experience
- Acted for a high-net-worth mother in private children relocation court proceedings followed by children residence proceedings.
- Acted for a spouse and secured the return of the children following their wrongful removal to the UK.
- Concluded out-of-court settlements for City and legal professionals and their spouses and partners.
Richard advises domestic and international clients on every aspect of family law including complex financial and business cases, private children issues, and cohabitant disputes.
Experience
- Maintained confidential the identity of high-profile media and arts clients in the public eye and resolved their matters outside the court system.
- Acted for a high-net-worth entrepreneur on a post-nuptial agreement.
- Advised a wealthy farmer’s wife in rural West Wales (dairy, arable).
- Advised a wealthy farmer in Lincolnshire (arable).
Please note: The experience list above may include examples of work completed prior to joining Keystone Law.
Recognition
Recognised by Chambers High Net Worth for Family: Matrimonial Finance 2021–2026
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Family: Children 2026
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Family: divorce and financial remedy 2026
Recognised by The Legal 500 for Family 2020–2025
Top Recommended Lawyer in The Spear’s 500 Family Law Index 2023–2025
Recommended in Citywealth Leaders List 2018–2019
“Richard Collins is exemplary. He is equally as impressive for both financial remedy and children cases. He has excellent judgment, puts his clients at ease whilst fighting their corner, knows when to settle and provides a truly excellent service.”
The Legal 500 2026
“Richard Collins is well-versed in big cases and tough litigation. He is a strong litigator and is well-used to big battles where necessary. He is always on top of the full detail and is extremely responsive to clients. He has an instinctive understanding of the “right” outcome and fights hard to achieve it for his clients.”
The Legal 500 2026
“Richard Collins is excellent. He’s a really good litigator. He’s really responsive, he has really good client care skills and he’s very good at seeing the end point of a case at the start.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2025
“Richard Collins manages cases in a very efficient way. He has excellent judgement of when to fight and when not to.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2025
“Collins is a very conscientious practitioner who fights hard for his clients.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2024
“Richard Collins has enormous experience and expertise over money and children work having worked at a magic circle firm for many years and now working at Keystone. He is immensely popular with clients who appreciate his practical and problem solving approach and his attempts to keep the costs down.”
The Legal 500 2024
“Richard is very supportive, dedicated to his clients and very tactical. If there’s a fight, you want him on your side.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2023
“He is a brilliant negotiator. He has extremely good judgement and he’s very practical.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2023
“Clients absolutely adore him, he has really good judgement and he will fight a client’s corner wherever necessary. He is relentless in getting clients the best deal.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2023
“Collins is a very conscientious practitioner who fights hard for his clients.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2023
“Richard has absolute professionalism and authoritative approach. He is above all a compassionate, caring, friendly and sympathetic human being.”
Spear’s 500 2023
“Richard is a very experienced lawyer with a wide-ranging practice involving children and money.”
Chambers UK 2023
“He is really good to deal with, he’s very straight talking. He’s very committed.”
Chambers UK 2023
“I have worked with Richard Collins for a number of years and he is a first rate solicitor. He is an outstanding litigator with the exceptional ability to predict outcomes at an early stage. He is hugely responsive working all hours (however unfashionable that has become). His charge rate reflects very well against the top flight niche family firms and the service he provides is equivalent to or beyond some of the most well known names in the financial remedy field.”
The Legal 500 2023
“Keystone operates an innovative and client focused business where the overheads are kept to a minimum and the calibre of the lawyers is kept consistently high. Richard Collins is a very experienced family law solicitor with a very loyal following. He offers a Rolls Royce service at a reasonable price. He is pragmatic and solutions focused and his clients have total confidence in him.”
The Legal 500 2022
“Clients absolutely adore him, he has really good judgement and he will fight a client’s corner wherever necessary. He is relentless in getting clients the best deal. He is really good to deal with, he’s very straight talking. He’s very committed.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2022
“A very experienced lawyer with a wide-ranging practice involving children and money. He is a brilliant negotiator. He has extremely good judgement and he’s very practical.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2022
“Richard Collins of Keystone Law is “a class act. He is very pragmatic and very solutions-focused.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2021
“He has very sound judgement. He goes the extra mile and is commercial and wise. He is as strong in relation to children work as he is on finance work and is very used to complex cross-jurisdictional work.”
Chambers High Net Worth 2021
“Richard Collins is a conscientious and strategic solicitor who was able to keep the process going forward despite many obstacles from external factors. I personally found his calm, even nature in the wake of conflict a source of stability as we worked through the financial negotiations.”
The Legal 500 2021
“Richard Collins has a clear grasp of any financial settlement and the needs of the children and his client, is prepared to play hard ball where necessary, but will not inflame what can be an already volatile situation into a battlefield.”
Citywealth Leaders List 2019
“Richard Collins ‘fights hard for his clients, 24 hours a day.”
The Legal 500 2017
“Richard Collins … is ‘a tough litigator with an excellent bedside manner’. ”
The Legal 500 2016
Richard qualified as a solicitor in 1996. Prior to joining Keystone Law in 2018, he worked at:
- Charles Russell Speechlys