Senior Consultant Solicitor – Family Law
Marked as a Legal 500 “rising star” in her native North East circuit, Jo relocated to London to join a high-end Mayfair litigation team as a Chambers and Partners “Associate to Watch”. She progressed to Director level at a leading City family law firm before joining Allard Bailey as a Senior Consultant.
Jo deals with all areas of family law including divorce and separation; the breakdown of civil partnerships; jurisdictional disputes and enforcement; freezing injunctions; pre- and post-nuptial agreements and applications to vary maintenance. She specialises in complex financial matters and is an Accredited Resolution Specialist in family finance. Jo advises clients in relation to locating hidden assets, cases involving company assets and trust structures, and has presented to Jersey and Guernsey professionals and trustees on the family court’s approach to offshore assets.
Jo’s work has included:
- Successfully avoiding the dissipation of marital assets by obtaining a worldwide freezing order and locating offshore assets in a sham trust to achieve a fair outcome in financial proceedings.
- Representing the partner of a high-profile sportsman and achieving a significant out of court settlement.
- Discreetly negotiating a very favourable financial settlement for a high-profile business person.
Jo is also highly experienced in private law children matters including child arrangements; leave to remove children from the jurisdiction; child abduction and specific issue and prohibited steps orders, with a particular interest in adoption and surrogacy.
Jo “goes the extra mile” for her clients (Chambers and Partners) and tailors her approach depending on each client’s needs. Her work has involved successfully advising high net worth CEO’s, City professionals, sports personalities, tech-entrepreneurs and bankers. She is also a trained collaborative lawyer and can successfully negotiate outside of the court process or litigate strategically within it. You can learn more about Jo’s approach in our Balance for Better Blog.