International family law
Our Family Department advises on the complex situations arising when UK marriages with overseas assets or marriages in foreign jurisdictions with UK assets break down.
Wherever in the world assets are located, our clients can rest assured that we have experts in that jurisdiction to advise as necessary regarding the assets located there.
The various child custody and contact arrangements can be more complex for international families. We have considerable experience advising how to protect the best interests of such clients and their children.
A number of our lawyers are multi lingual. We have staff who speak French, Spanish, German, Italian and Czech/Slovak.
The jurisdictions we have worked with recently include:
Australia Lithuania
Austria Nevis
Bulgaria Nigeria
Canada Poland
Greece Russia
France Singapore
Holland Spain
Hong Kong Switzerland
India Turkey
Italy United States of America
Japan
Case studies:
Mrs X had lived in the UK but was domiciled in Singapore and returned there after her marriage ended. After seeking advice in both jurisdictions, Mrs X was concerned that the divorce and financial settlement took place in Singapore because assets she had accrued before the marriage would not be at risk in the divorce proceedings there whereas they would be in the UK. However, the parties were able to agree that Mr X would waive any claim to Mrs X's pre-marital assets and on that basis the parties divorced in the UK.
Mrs Y was Lithuanian but living in the UK. Her husband began divorce proceedings in Lithuania after she had communicated her wish to divorce in the UK. Usually, the person who issues divorce proceedings first in the EU secures that jurisdiction. However, working with Mrs Y's lawyer in Lithuania we persuaded the Lithuanian Court to dismiss the proceedings and allow the London divorce proceedings subsequently begun by Mrs Y to prevail as both parties and their teenage son were resident in the UK and the husband's business was also in the UK."