The Divorce Surgery – ‘One Couple, One Lawyer’

Samantha Woodham and Harry Gates, 4 Paper Buildings

What would the family lawyer do, presented with a blank piece of paper and tasked with the design of a new roadmap for resolving financial and children disputes? 

Post-LASPO, this question has continued to rise up the agenda, fuelled by the interim proposals of Mr Justice Cobb’s Private Law Working Group and also by the nationwide roll-out of the Financial Remedy Court scheme.  In both spheres, the focus is clear: how to minimise the emotional and financial cost of family breakdown?

Samantha Woodham and Harry Gates of The Divorce Surgery argue that early legal advice is key, in order to harmonise rapidly divergent expectations.  Its 'One Couple, One Lawyer' model provides one impartial barrister to advise a couple together on a privileged basis as to likely outcomes, for a fixed fee.  In this article, the authors explain why, how and their progress so far. 

The full article will be published in the December issue of Family Law. 

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