Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP

Family.

Jane has been a senior consultant in the family department since April 2022, having previously headed the department for 16 years. She is a recognised expert in divorce finances with many years’ experience of cases involving trusts, inherited wealth, complicated remuneration structures and assets overseas. Her expertise includes the preparation of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements. Jane is also a recognised expert in cases involving unmarried couples and has contributed to a number of significant practice guides to the law in this area. Many of Jane’s cases have an international dimension and she is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL), a worldwide association of practising lawyers who are recognised by their peers as the most experienced and expert family law specialists in their respective countries.

Jane has played a leading role in the development and practice of family law for 40 years. She was the first private law solicitor member of the Family Justice Council, which advises the government on family policy issues. She is an active member of Resolution’s Cohabitation Committee, which campaigns for reform of the law relating to cohabitants. Jane has represented clients involved in some of the country’s leading reported cases, including T v T, a case relating to jurisdiction in European family disputes and Grey, one of the leading Court of Appeal decisions on the impact of cohabitation on maintenance claims for wives and former wives.

She has appeared talking about family law issues on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Law in Action’, ‘Woman’s Hour’, ‘Money Box’, ‘You and Yours’ and Radio 5 Live, as well BBC Breakfast, Channel Four News and BBC News.

Articled Middlesborough; qualified 1982; joined Manches LLP 1988; partner 1992.

A-level French.

Chair of Resolution (formerly Solicitors’ Family Law Association) May 2001 to March 2003. Appointed the first private law solicitor member of The Family Justice Council in June 2004; chair of The Family Justice Council Children in Families committee 2005-11; member of The Law Commission’s Cohabitation Project Legal Advisory Group 2006-7.

Hornsey High School for Girls; Southampton University (1979 LLB 2(1)).