Allard Bailey Family Law starts the year by welcoming Jennifer Granby.  Jennifer, who was previously a Director at Family Law Associates, joins our busy family team as a Senior Consultant Solicitor.

Jennifer advises on a wide range of family law matters including divorce, financial relief, nuptial agreements, unmarried families, children disputes and domestic abuse. She has a diverse client base which has included high profile clients and their partners, members of the entertainment industry, lawyers, entrepreneurs, city professionals and clients whose primary responsibility is caring for their children.

Sabrina Bailey, Joint Managing Partner “We started this firm to do things differently, so we’re delighted to be joined by Jennifer, whose ethos, approach and experience fit so well with our vision.”

Jennifer holds the Law Society’s Family Law Accreditation and an LLM in Child Law. She is also a trained collaborative lawyer and a committed member of Resolution. For further information about Jennifer and her experience please click here.

Broadcaster and author Stephen Fry has voiced a video, produced by Allard Bailey Family Law, to help challenge stigma toward LGBT families.  The nine-minute film draws on independent research from the UK, United States, the Netherlands and Australia* that shows children raised by same-sex parents usually outperform others academically.

Stephen Fry says in the video that “stigma” is the one big disadvantage of same sex families: “As medical advances enable more people to have biological children, adoption is declining among traditional families. At the same time there is a rise in adoption among same sex parents, who also adopt more of the children considered difficult to place, such as those with health problems, older children and siblings who should stay together. These children would otherwise face a very difficult future in care.”

Louise Allard, Director of Allard Bailey, said: “Despite the progress that has been made for the LGBT community in recent years, many people still view same-sex parenting with suspicion.  Sadly, children face bullying because of their same-sex parents and their parents often face stigma. We believe this stigma is unjustified and hope our video is a contribution to ending this.

It is intended to promote social inclusion, encouraging all children and those who influence them to accept differences in our society with toleration.”

The video has been released free on Stephen Fry’s YouTube Channel, Pindex, as an aid for schools that are introducing LGBT inclusive relationship education for the first time.

The government’s new relationships and sex education curriculum came into effect from September, requiring LGBT-inclusive lessons in secondary schools.  It stopped short of making LGBT+ inclusion lessons compulsory for primary schools. Instead, they are only “strongly encouraged” when teaching about families to include families with same sex parents.

Louise Allard said: “We need to challenge the misconception that somehow being raised by same-sex parents is second best. The research clearly shows that children of same-sex couples are often happier and healthier, even when social and economic advantages were taken into account. Of course, nobody is suggesting one kind of gender combination is better than another, just that what matters for a child’s outcome at school is a loving and supporting home life.

It is disappointing that the government didn’t make teaching about LGBT+ families mandatory in primary schools as so many primary schools now have students with same-sex parents.  We hope those schools will choose to educate their population.”

It is hoped that many primary schools will still use the ‘No Outsiders’ programme developed by Andrew Moffat, the deputy headmaster of Parkfield Community School in Birmingham, which focuses on educating primary school children about the characteristics protected by the Equality Act, which includes sexual orientation.

The number of same-sex couple families in the UK increased from 152,000 in 2015 to 232,000 in 2018, a rise of 53.2 per cent.

Research suggests that an estimated two-thirds of children with same-sex parents experience some form of stigma due to their parents’ sexual orientation.**

*https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/23/children-raised-by-same-sex-parents-do-as-well-as-their-peers-study-shows

** https://theconversation.com/kids-from-same-sex-families-fare-as-well-as-peers-or-better-28803%20

For further information contact Evette Pottinger.

– ENDS –

About Allard Bailey

Allard Bailey Family Law supports families of all shapes and sizes through their best and worst times, which gives us a remarkable insight into real family life.

With offices in London’s legal district and Hertfordshire, the firm assists UK and international clients with every decision-making stage of their private lives, including Adoption & Surrogacy, Children’s Law, Cohabitation, Court of Protection, Divorce & Separation, Domestic Abuse, LGBT Family Law, Pre and Post-Nuptial Agreements, Tax & Estate Planning, Wills & Probate

Speakers: Louise Allard and Sangeeta Rabadia

Hosted by: Fresh Business Thinking

Date: Tuesday 13th October 2020

WATCH REPLAY: Click here

When you run a business there is always an overlap between your professional and personal life. To ensure you can realise your goals, it is important to understand how the decisions you make in your private life can impact your business interests and vice versa.

We specialise in helping entrepreneurs, directors and investors to protect their professional interests from personal life events, so they can achieve their lifetime ambitions and leave the legacy they intend. We also deal with the legal fall-out for those who do not take these steps.

This is the first in a three-part webinar series in which we look at how to legally align your professional and personal interests so that:

• the value of your wealth is maximised
• your business is protected from significant life events
• you can achieve your ultimate life goals.

In the first webinar we will focus on how to grow efficiently and you will learn:

• Whether the company structure you have in place will help or hinder your personal goals including enjoying life now or in retirement, creating a family business, leaving a personal legacy and charitable aims.
• How to grow your business in a way that allows you to meet both your professional and personal ambitions.
• How to structure your personal wealth to achieve your short, medium and long-term goals.
• How to protect your long-term interests and those of your family, including vulnerable persons, using different legal tools.

In part 2, we will discuss the legal tools you can use to shield your business from the impact of personal life events such as unexpected incapacity, death, marriage and divorce.

In part 3, we will consider how your personal relationships can affect your business and how effective planning can minimise this.

WATCH

Click here to watch the replay of this free online event hosted by Fresh Business Thinking.