Family Law Partners welcomes City expert Gemma Vines and strengthens specialist family law team
Family Law Partners strengthens its Brighton team with the arrival of specialist family law solicitor Gemma Vines who joins the team on 16th July.
A Resolution Accredited Specialist in the areas of Private Law Children and Child Abduction, Gemma joins from City firm Wedlake Bell LLP where she set up a Child Abduction practice.
Gemma’s arrival further enhances Family Law Partners’ reputation including her work in complex private law children matters, and complements the firm’s growing portfolio of international children law and surrogacy cases.
Gemma has achieved 5 reported children law cases within the last few years, one of which, relating to the voice of the child in children proceedings, reached the Supreme Court of England and Wales in 2016 [Re D (A Child) [2016] UKSC 34]. Another of Gemma’s notable cases is HB V PB [2013] EWHC 1956 (Fam) in which she successfully obtained a wasted costs order against the Local Authority in private law children proceedings. She also acted in Re AB (Surrogacy: Consent) [2016] 2 LFR 217, a case highlighting the urgent need for surrogacy law reform to prevent further situations where the Court is prevented from recognising the biological parents as the legal parents of children.
Robert Williams, Director at Family Law Partners, said: ‘We are thrilled to welcome a lawyer of Gemma’s calibre to our growing team. As the FLP brand has grown, our reputation for supporting clients in divorce and separation in particular using dispute resolution models has developed to include complex children work. Gemma’s experience in international cases, including those related to surrogacy, sets us apart from other firms in the region and her arrival will be instrumental in our aim to further attract work of this kind. In addition, she will strengthen our finance team’.
Robert added ‘Gemma was described by Stephen Jarmain, a leading Barrister at 1KBW who has just been involved in the Supreme Court case of Owens, as a lawyer whose integrity is unassailable, who fights for her clients but who also has the maturity and insight to understand the value to clients of a negotiated and agreed solutions and this sums up the skills and calibre of the lawyers we already have and who we want in our specialist team. Gemma’s arrival is part of our ambitious growth plans. We are particularly excited that her arrival will complement our existing surrogacy team of Gemma Hope and Lauren Guy.
Gemma joins the firm’s central Brighton office on 16th July as Senior Associate where she will be advising clients across Sussex, London and internationally. As well as her work involving children she will be dealing with divorce, finance and pre and post nuptial agreements.