Vardags

Vardags is a leading, law-changing, blue-chip law firm, specialising in high stakes, complex, and international cases for high-net-worth individuals and their companies. ‘Britain’s top divorce lawyer’ Ayesha Vardag leads a team of the country’s best legal minds. The firm has taken City quality into the private sphere, and become one of the very few UK law firms called upon to advise heads of state, on matters of both English and international law. The firm’s lawyers are frequently called upon as experts on the biggest cases and legal issues of the day, by outlets such as BBC News, CNN, the Today Programme, and Newsnight.

Principal areas of work
Divorce: Vardags is best known as one of the country’s top divorce firms, providing a full range of matrimonial law services for high-net-worth individuals. The firm has been involved in many, if not most, of the leading ‘big money’ cases of our times. Vardags is outspoken in its support for no-fault divorce, having founded and spearheaded the Campaign for Family Law Reform, and co-parenting, consistent with its own commitment to equality and family-friendly policies. The firm is unique in having an in-house financial forensics team and its invaluable expertise in remuneration and complex corporate structures, valuations, options and derivatives, and asset tracing ensures every client gets their fair share. In the 2010 landmark case of Radmacher v Granatino, Vardags changed the law by making prenuptial agreements enforceable in England and Wales. Since then, Vardags has acted in many high profile cases heard in the English courts, including:

• Obtaining a record award against declared bankrupt Mr Young and a record costs award for Michelle Young in Young v Young
• Acting for Yasmin Prest in the High Court case which ran into the Supreme Court ‘corporate veil’ victory of Prest v Petrodel
• Acting successfully in a ground-breaking transatlantic nullity case involving Sharia, English, US and Italian law
• Obtaining what is believed to be a record interim child maintenance award against a foreign royal family member
• Acting in a case involving a head of state which was England’s first concluded family law arbitration
• Acting for Li Quan in the international tiger charity case
• Acting for the Marchioness of Northampton in her famous divorce settlement
• Securing the highest award ever award after a foreign divorce in Al-Baker v Al-Baker
• Winning the leviathan jurisdiction battle and one of the largest ever reported divorce awards for the former Miss Malaysia against her Laura Ashley tycoon husband, in Chai v Khoo
• Securing a Court of Protection order generating consent to fertility treatment for a client’s husband after a tragic road accident left him on life support in 2018, a ground-breaking legal first
• Vardags acted for the husband in FRB v DCA, a high-profile divorce case involving very complex financial proceedings relating to the divorce of the scions of two allegedly billionaire families.

Children and family: Vardags’ children and family department offers a full range of family law services, including prenuptial, postnuptial, and cohabitation agreements, fertility and surrogacy, and disputes involving children.

Vardags’ dedicated children’s team handles a wide range of matters, from fertility and surrogacy to disputes relating to family breakdown. Many of the department’s cases have an international element, such as international relocation, the registration and enforcement of foreign contact orders, and all other forms of cross-border children disputes.

Vardags is a champion of the reform of UK surrogacy laws, which often force hopeful parents to go abroad or to enter into precarious agreements. The Vardags team can help legally secure and protect families created through assisted conception, fertility treatment, donor conception, and surrogacy. Familiar with the sensitivities of modern family-building, Vardags offers specialist legal advice and representation to help high-net-worth individuals place their family life on a firm legal footing.

Commercial and civil litigation: The civil and commercial litigation team works on a wide range of commercial matters, including shareholder disputes, professional negligence, and insolvency agreements. The team advises on some of the most high-stakes, complex disputes across a range of industries, including construction, manufacturing, and international arbitration.

Criminal defence: The criminal team advises clients who are subject to investigation by the police and other investigative bodies, including the SFO and HMRC. The team provides full representation and advice from before arrest to trial and appeal, and has acted in some of the most high-profile cases in the Old Bailey over recent years. The team provides comprehensive representation in relation to assault, drugs, harassment and sexual offences as well as all aspects of white-collar crime, regulatory crime, and confiscation proceedings. It has an extraordinary record in shutting down investigations before charges are brought.

Property: Vardags’ property department acts for clients in buying, selling, mortgaging, and restructuring prime and super-prime properties in London and across the country. The team provides a discreet, meticulous, and comprehensive service to high and ultra-high-net-worth clients involved in property transactions, and works tirelessly to ensure these are completed with speed and precision. Cases include contract races won and deals secured in under seven hours.

Reputation and privacy: Vardags’ reputation and privacy team works to protect the best interests of high profile and high-net-worth individuals and successful companies. It represents celebrities, sports stars, entrepreneurs, and business executives on all areas of media and privacy litigation, including press management, online media issues, and defence against smear campaigns.

The department has also ensured that some of Vardags’ most high profile cases going through the English family courts are kept entirely out of the public eye. The firm handles these cases with the utmost discretion and expertise cultivated from years of experience in handling the press.

Clients: Vardags acts for high-net-worth individuals, their families, and their companies in high-stakes legal matters when a successful outcome is paramount.

Its divorce lawyers always aim to find a resolution, but are prepared to fight hard to win clients their fair share. They are also well-equipped to assist the financially weaker party by facilitating lending, tracing hidden assets and defending their best interests.

Vardags also supports its clients by providing a top-quality legal service to high-net-worth individuals in need of a children, criminal, civil litigation, property, or reputation lawyer.

Regional offices: Led by a surge in client demand, Vardags has expanded nationally and now works with clients from across the world in London, Manchester and Cambridge.

International: Vardags has unrivalled international expertise and a global clientele. Their familiarity with complex legal work spanning international jurisdictions is unparalleled and the firm is truly multi-lingual.

Recruitment: Vardags hand-picks stellar individuals who demonstrate intellect, creativity, determination and integrity and hail from the top academic and commercial institutions, including leading City firms. The firm has created a unique graduate training programme allowing the most talented young lawyers to join the firm directly on graduation from university and study through to qualification while being paid a full salary and doing real work. This leads their lawyers to qualify at a level described at the Bar as several years ahead of those of other firms.

Vardags Manchester: Vardags Manchester is a specialist divorce and family law firm for high-net-worth individuals and their families residing in the north west of England. Practising under the expert guidance of ‘Britain’s top divorce lawyer’ Ayesha Vardag and headed by ’Manchester’s celebrity divorce lawyer’ Emma Gill, the Manchester office has brought a truly unique standard of service to the region. Since opening in 2016, Vardags Manchester’s innovative practice has earned the reputation as the region’s go-to law firm for high value, complex international divorce cases. Emma Gill is frequently sought out for commentary by the national press, including The Times and The Guardian. She is also a BBC Breakfast regular and often shares her legal expertise on Radio 5 Live.

Principal areas of work
Divorce: Vardags Manchester is best known throughout the region for its cutting-edge, top quality divorce law practice. Emma Gill and her team have represented some of the North West’s most high profile and high value clients in divorce cases involving several millions of pounds.

As a firm specialising in the most valuable cases, Vardags Manchester’s lawyers are unrivalled in their experience of handling the uniquely complex financial circumstances arising from high-net-worth divorce. The legal team works with the firm’s unique in-house forensic accountants, transforming the outcomes of divorce proceedings with expertise in remuneration, valuations, corporate structures, and asset tracing.

Vardags Manchester has represented clients in some of the most challenging and high-stakes cases in the region, including:

• Acting in an unprecedented case for the wife of a successful businessman to challenge the validity of a highly limiting post nuptial agreement. The agreement had been signed at a time when the husband had failed to disclose a diagnosis of a life threatening condition.
• Representing a nationally renowned actor in a dispute with his former wife over arrangements for their daughter, particularly around issues regarding privacy and use of the daughter’s image in national and social media.
• Acting for the wife of an entrepreneur worth millions, whose attempts at lack of disclosure and dissipation of assets were uncovered by our financial forensics work.
• Raising a powerful and innovative argument for the wife in a dispute worth over £15m in which the husband sought to retain over 80% of assets.
• Arguing that the significant assets built up by a husband through hard work and clever entrepreneurship in his youth were non-matrimonial, reducing the sum eligible for division with his younger wife.

Children and family: Vardags Manchester’s children and family department offers a full range of family law services, including prenuptial, postnuptial, and cohabitation agreements. Emma Gill and Lucy Williams are experts in children disputes, and many of the team share a background in child protection law. In every case, their primary goal is to protect the best interests of the children concerned.

Unlike many, Vardags Manchester focuses on providing advice that is not only of the highest legal merit, but also practical and pragmatic, taking into consideration the particular circumstances of both families and individuals.

In line with the firm’s commitment to families’ right to choice, the Manchester office is a champion of the reform of UK surrogacy laws, which often force hopeful parents to go abroad or to enter into insecure agreements. The team can help legally protect families created through assisted conception, fertility treatment, donor conception, and surrogacy. Familiar with the sensitivities of modern family-building, Vardags offers specialist legal advice and representation to help high-net-worth individuals place their family life on a firm footing.

Clients: Vardags Manchester represents the North West’s elite, including entrepreneurs, executives, and sports personalities. Clients instruct the firm for world-class support in high-stakes legal matters, when a successful outcome is paramount.

Clients are usually based in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Shropshire, and Merseyside, although Emma Gill has a healthy London-based practice.

Recruitment: Vardags Manchester selects the very best and brightest young lawyers who share the firm’s love for the North West. Creativity, determination, and integrity are particularly admired. The firm has created a unique graduate training programme allowing the most talented young lawyers to work while being paid a full salary, and qualify at Vardags fully financed, directly on graduation from university.