Jennifer is an Equity Partner and Director in the Family Department and joined the firm in 2006 as a trainee. Together with running her legal practice, Jennifer has been instrumental in developing and managing the Legal Contract Programme providing practical support, coaching and mentorship to trainees starting their legal careers with Hughes Paddison.

Jennifer is a family law specialist, focussing on all aspects of relationship breakdown including divorce, cohabitation disputes and financial negotiations arising on separation, and arrangements for children. As a qualified mediator she also offers mediation as an alternative dispute resolution method.

Key Skills

• Pre and post nuptial agreements

• Divorce, Civil Partnership, and dissolution proceedings

• Complex financial matters after separation to include high-net worth clients

• Complex and difficult children’s cases which involve welfare and safeguarding issues

• Experienced in domestic abuse and injunctions

• Advises on both TOLATA (Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustee Act) and Schedule I Act proceedings

• Qualified Family Mediator, where relevant Jennifer helps resolve disputes outside of court

• Advises families looking at protecting generational wealth

• Works closely with the other Hughes Paddison specialist departments and a strong network of external professionals to ensure all the client’s circumstances are considered.

Experience

• With local, national and international clients, Jennifer’s caring, compassionate and flexible approach to family dispute resolution, has seen great results for her clients.

• Jennifer’s advice is sculpted to an individual’s circumstances considering all factors that are important to them. This approach enables clients to be guided through all options and feel empowered to make their own choices, giving them the certainty, knowledge, and confidence in their own future.

• When representing clients at court, Jennifer’s approach is strategic, measured, and robust.

In her Financial Practice Jennifer has helped numerous clients to achieve a successful outcome in relation to:

• Preservation of family businesses

• Preservation of land with planning potential

• Beneficial capitalisation/variation of spousal maintenance

• Complex family trust arrangements

• Retention of pre-marital wealth and post-separation assets

• Farming cases involving preservation of family farming business partnerships

• Pension preservation and final salary schemes to maintain income streams upon retirement

• Enforcement proceedings in both children and financial proceedings including penal notices and costs orders

• Obtaining judgements to ensure all compliance of a non-cooperative spouse to avoid non-disclosure

• Cases involving non-disclosure, complex company structures and assets located across multiple jurisdictions

Jennifer’s busy Children practice has included successful outcomes for her clients in relation to:

• Internal and external relocations
• Child arrangement orders that ensure the children of a family spend equal time with both mum and dad
• Successful fact-finding hearings in complex safeguarding, domestic abuse, and complex welfare cases
• Financial provision pursuant to Schedule 1 Children Act applications.
• Results that ensure a child-focused long-term and workable resolution or outcome

Managing cases involving children and family finances in tandem proceedings and this overarching perspective adds value to the management of cases in both areas.

Memberships

• Member of the Family Mediation Council 
• Member of Resolution 
• On the Board of Advisors for Cheltenham Child Contact Centre 

Outside of work

Outside of work Jennifer enjoys running, spinning classes and horse riding particularly one day eventing. She has taken Wixford Ted to British One Day Eventing and Team Chasing. Jennifer is married and has a daughter and two Hungarian Vizsla’s called Purdey and Vesper.