Julia is a Senior Associate in the Family team.
She works with couples on separation, divorce or dissolution of their civil partnership and helps them to agree the sharing of finances, property, pensions and other assets, such as a family trust. Where there is a business or farm, she deals with valuation issues and liquidity to assess how the asset can be dealt with in the division. Her support includes guiding couples who need help to agree arrangements for their children, such as where they should live and parental responsibility. She also assists grandparents in resolving arrangements to see their grandchildren where there is a dispute.
In addition, she prepares pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements for couples who have wealth to protect from outside the marriage, such as in a second marriage, where parents wish to protect their inheritance or a personal injury settlement. She also creates cohabitation agreements for couples who wish to live together without marrying.
Her clients include business owners, professionals, farmers and landowners, high-net-worth-individuals and their spouses, usually with assets between £1 million and £25 million.
Recent examples of how Julia has supported clients include:
- proving that a client had contributed to her ex-partner’s property investments and farming land during their 20-year relationship and so was entitled to a beneficial interest in the property value;
- preparing a prenuptial agreement for the daughter of an entrepreneur who wished to gift a shareholding and a lump sum to his daughter; and
- assisting a parent who had moved back to the UK with her children in relation to an alleged child abduction where their father remained overseas.