Howes Percival has appointed family law expert, Sally Harris as a director. She joins the leading law firm from Steeles Law where she was a partner and head of the family law team. Sally is focused predominantly on financial remedy cases, having specialised in family law for nearly 30 years, she has detailed and wide-ranging experience of all issues arising from relationship breakdown. She is a compassionate family practitioner with long experience in private law Children Act proceedings and regularly advises on post and prenup agreements. She is a member of Resolution and a trained collaborative lawyer. Client feedback to the Legal 500 (the authoritative guide to the UK’s leading law firms) describes Sally as ‘well respected locally as a strong, pragmatic, experienced and client focused lawyer.’ and a ‘calm and collected but also a formidable opponent’. Commenting on the appointment, Justine Flack, a partner and head of the family law department at Howes Percival said,
“We pride ourselves on recruiting experienced, hands-on professionals and giving clients direct access to those senior experts. So, I’m delighted to welcome Sally to the firm. She is highly regarded, and in addition to bringing extensive experience, she has strong technical skills and a great reputation for her work.
“We continue to experience increased demand for family law services. Many people have re-evaluated their relationships during the pandemic and we are now seeing this referred to as a direct cause of the breakdown. More couples are choosing to live together, so advice about co-habitation agreements is also on the increase. This involves us being able to take a holistic approach by working with our colleagues in private client and property. Likewise, more people are seeing the benefit of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements. While the nature of the work constantly changes, assisting high-net worth individuals in divorce proceedings with complex assets is still the core of our work.”
Justine Flack continued,
“No fault divorce is scheduled to be introduced in April 2022 enabling couples to part ways with mutual consent. Neither spouse will have to take the blame, which is hoped to make the process easier for all involved. We think there could well be a rush of instructions in the New Year, ahead of the new regime. No fault divorce is aimed at making divorce less confrontational, and as a trained collaborative lawyer, Sally will offer this very effective form of alternative dispute resolution.
“Alternative dispute resolution provides an opportunity for people to work through the things they need to sort out following a separation to enable them and their family to move on with life in a positive way. The pandemic exacerbated court delays and backlogs, so people should also consider alternative dispute resolution to resolve their problems rather than going to court.
“To meet the increasing demand for our family law services, we will also be appointing two new senior associates to the team in the new year.”
Howes Percival’s Family Law team provides a fully integrated and comprehensive service for high-net worth individuals and family businesses. The team works closely with other legal experts within the firm to advise on all aspects of relationships and family matters, including those relating to children, property, family and farming businesses, estates, wills, probate, trusts and tax. All Howes Percival family lawyers are members of Resolution, a national organisation of family lawyers and other professionals committed to the constructive resolution of family disputes. Whilst the team will strive to get the best result for clients by agreement, they are also experienced litigators and will represent clients’ interests in Court robustly when necessary. For more details on Howes Percival’s Family Law team, click here.