Area of practice includes family mediation; collaborative law; civil/commercial mediation; family court work. Alison is also a children and financial arbitrator. Types of work include complex financial settlements on divorce, wealth protection (including pre-and post-marital agreements), all issues mediation, advice in relation to disputes about children. Important cases include numerous confidential high-value divorce and pre-marital agreement cases involving individuals based in England & Wales and overseas. Increasing number of mediation cases, involving a wide range of clients, including some high profile individuals. Particular focus on resolving disputes in a conciliatory way in the best interests of the families and children involved. Reported cases include McMinn v McMinn [2003] 2 FLR 823 and [2003] 2 FLR 839, D v D (Divorce: media presence) [2009] EWHC 946. Heads the Mills & Reeve family dispute resolution practice.
Mills & Reeve LLP
Lawyers
Family law specialist, mediator and collaborative lawyer specialising in financial remedy and private children proceedings upon relationship breakdown. Andrew regularly advises on wealth protection opportunities and issues, working closely with Mills & Reeve’s corporate, commercial and private client teams to deliver joined up advice for regional, national and international business owners, and other high net worth individuals.
Ben has specialised in handling insurance disputes with a professional indemnity and construction focus for nearly 20 years. He is regularly instructed to act on behalf design & build contractors, architects, engineers and other specialist contractors and consultants and their insurers in connection with disputes of significant complexity and value. He also regularly defends insurance brokers and provides risk management advice to them, including in conjunction with the Chartered Insurance Institute, the British Insurance Brokers Association and broker networks.
Caroline is based in the Manchester office of Mills & Reeve. She has considerable experience in all areas of commercial property work ranging from industrial, retail, residential and leisure developments to landlord and tenant work, pension fund acquisitions and property finance. She specialises in development work (including option agreements, conditional contracts, development agreements, planning promotion agreements and joint ventures) with particular expertise in hotel and residential development. Her clients include Marick Capital, Topland Group, Persimmon Homes, Urban&Civic, Bridge Properties and Bluemantle Limited. Caroline’s current projects include hotel developments in London and Manchester and two large mixed-use developments in Lancashire.
Chris has considerable experience in advising companies, investors and management teams on corporate finance matters including mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. He has a particular expertise in the pharmaceutical wholesale and retail sector for Pan-European and regional companies.
Chris advises a variety of businesses on corporate transactions, including acquisitions, disposals and reorganisations. Whether advising large corporates or working with owner managers on transactions, Chris has been a part of the North West deals market for over 15 years. Recent deals in 2016/17 include the acquisition of a majority stake in online retailer Blinds 2 Go for multinational Hunter Douglas NV and an intensive buy and build strategy for the Global Entertainment and Media Group, completing the acquisition over 18 months of 14 separate major music festivals, making Global the second largest festival operator in the UK.
Partner and Barrister specialising in estate planning for high net worth individuals, including advising on Wills, trusts, lasting powers of attorney and probate matters. Deborah has particular experience advising clients with business interests where understanding of both corporate and private tax issues is key. Deborah has a national reputation for advising on the design and formation of family investment companies especially when used as an estate planning tool and regularly lectures on this area to accountants, lawyers and financial advisers nationally. She also has significant experience in advising on the transition to employee ownership structures and succession planning.
Helen is based in the Manchester office of Mills & Reeve. She has specialised in both corporate and individual insolvency since qualification and is a member of the Insolvency Lawyers’ Association and R3. She has established a reputation locally as an authority in relation to complex investigations and recoveries, complex individual voluntary arrangements of professionals and high-net-worth individuals (including celebrities).
Liam is a professional indemnity insurance litigator who specialises in defending claims against accountants, financial advisors, insurance brokers and solicitors. He is also regularly instructed to advise in relation to policy coverage disputes.
Mark’s role as an arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport over the last couple of decades has seen him involved in some high-profile cases, including his appointment to the 2016 Olympic ad hoc Division in Rio. He has now been involved in over 300 arbitrations. Mark was also re-appointed as an arbitrator on the Sport Resolutions Panel (Chairpersons List) in 2021 and is also a member of the National Anti-doping Panel. Mark continues to advise various sports union organisations including The Professional Footballers’ Association, The PGA and The Professional Players Federation. Mark has also represented a number of clubs, leagues and Governing bodies. He represents a number of high-profile sport and entertainment clients in negotiations relating to their image rights and marketability. Mark is a qualified insolvency practitioner and has been involved in over 60 formal and informal professional football, rugby and rugby league club insolvencies, including Portsmouth FC in 2010 and 2012. Mark was awarded the title Partner of the Year at the 2013 Manchester Legal Awards and received a special recognition award at the 2013 NW Football Awards. More recently he was the WWL International Sports lawyer of the Year in 2020. He is a lecturer/visiting professor on Sports Law and finance at numerous Universities and colleges around the world.
Niall joined Mills & Reeve’s Manchester office as the Northern insurance team leader in January 2010 from Robin Simon LLP in Manchester. Niall took over from Liz Taylor and is responsible for the insurance teams in the Manchester and Leeds offices. Niall is experienced in all types of professional indemnity claims, including claims against solicitors, barristers, accountants, architects, engineers, brokers and IFAs. He deals with claims and regularly gives policy advice to insurers. Niall deals with disciplinary proceedings, and has considerable expertise in matters involving allegations of fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. He has acted in a number of claims against IT professionals, including claims brought in other jurisdictions. He has higher rights of audience in all civil courts.
Consultant and former national head of family law for Mills & Reeve; reputation as one of the country’s leading family practitioners; appears regularly in the print and broadcast media. He is a trained but now non-practising collaborative lawyer and practising family law financial arbitrator.
Richard has extensive and broad experience in all aspects of commercial dispute resolution. He is a CEDR accredited mediator. His focus is on understanding clients and their needs to put together strategies that get the necessary result.
Principal Associate Sandra is a dual qualified Solicitor/Rechtsanwӓltin (England and Germany). In her English practice she is a dispute resolution lawyer. She advises national and international corporate and individual clients across a wide range of industries and sectors on a wide variety of contractual and commercial disputes. In her German practice, she is part of the firm’s International Sector Group’s European Desk, with a particular emphasis on Germany due to her background. She deals with a wide spectrum of work from German corporates, individuals and professionals with English law issues and English clients with German law issues, spanning across all departments within the firm. Due to her background, she has an authentic and deep understanding of UK and German business practices and cultures, which provides instant credibility with German clients and their legal advisers and aids good communication, making her a very effective cross border communicator. Sandra is "very able and runs commercial cases excellently" The Legal 500 2018 "Sandra grapples with issues quickly" The Legal 500 2017
Claims against all professionals with a particular emphasis on claims against medical professionals, accountants and solicitors.
Zahra has been instrumental in growing the wills and estate planning team significantly and it is now a major player in the Manchester market place. Zahra’s particular area of expertise is advising on complex and innovative tax planning, including sophisticated wills and trusts. She acts as a trustee for many family trusts and has a particular niche in advising doctors and retired doctors on their estate planning affairs.