Zoe is a Partner in the Family team.
Zoe is straight talking who keeps focus on the important things. She is meticulous in her approach and will get to the heart of issues quickly often ensuring swift resolution.
Zoe is highly experienced in all aspects of divorce and separation, financial remedy, disputes in relation to children and protection from domestic abuse including coercive control. She acts for individuals that are married, in civil partnerships and cohabiting, at all stages of their relationship as well as advising broader family members in disputes regarding intergenerational wealth and complex arrangements for children. Zoe is the go-to referral for other family lawyers in Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley on these “intervener” matters when other family members need to be involved.
Zoe advises on complex and often high value cases involving trusts, business assets, international elements, complex share options/RSUs/LTIPs, farms and agricultural assets, complex pension arrangements, third party funders, freezing injunctions and appeals. Zoe’s expertise in respect of pensions is sought out by clients and other professionals alike. She has been involved in consultations with the national working group on pensions and is often canvassed for her views on updates in this area of the law.
In addition to extensive litigation experience, Zoe is well versed in all aspects of non-Court dispute resolution frequently advising on matters in arbitrations, hybrid mediations, private dispute resolution appointments and early neutral evaluations.
Zoe was also one of the first in the country to be able to provide advice to a couple together on separation. Through this work she supports clients to resolve issues in a constructive and conciliatory manner without the need for Court intervention.
Zoe is passionate about assisting couples at all stages of their relationships and is also sought out for advice in relation to pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements, declarations of trust and cohabitation agreements. Ensuring that couples understand the legal implications and their rights from the outset of their relationship.
Case Highlights:
- Advising and successfully representing a husband through a private settlement hearing where the wife had terminal cancer but was nevertheless seeking an inordinate share of the husband’s very valuable NHS pension, despite her life expectancy not enabling her to benefit from the same. Also securing a sale of the family home to provide deposit funds to the husband to rehouse himself.
- Advising a couple on their divorce and financial settlement, securing the provision of a school fees fund for their younger daughter to manage her education costs all the way to tertiary education, addressing the inherited properties retained by the husband and enabling a flexible approach to ensure their co-parenting relationship was maintained.
- In collaboration with tax advisors working urgently to ensure the transfer of assets prior to the end of the tax year to avoid very large CGT exposure as an interim measure in the couple’s separation.
Advising a mother urgently on her successful application to relocate with her child and prior to the birth of her second child back to her home country to ensure support is in place for her following the birth. - Advising and successfully representing a father in high conflict Children Act proceedings, where the mother had made significant unfounded allegations against him, which were dealt with robustly and dismissed at an early stage enabling Zoe to secure an equal shared care arrangement for their children.
- Advising a grandfather in respect of funds loaned to his son, intervening in divorce proceedings between the son and his wife to secure 100% repayment of the sums owed within 2 months from being instructed plus payment in full of all legal costs he had incurred.
- Working alongside colleagues in the Private Wealth team to provide intergenerational estate planning advice a family, preparing a nuptial agreement for one daughter and a cohabitation agreement for the other to protect gifts provided to them from dynastic wealth.
Advising and co-ordinating advice from other lawyers in at least 3 other countries to enable a wife to understand all the implications of initiating divorce proceedings in the relevant countries so she could make an urgent and informed decision about where to proceed.