Rayden Solicitors

Firm Overview

Rayden Solicitors is an award-winning and top tier-ranked family law firm with offices across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, London and into the West Midlands. We exclusively practice private family law and, as of 2023, are the third largest specialist family law firm in England and Wales. The firm was founded by Senior Partner Katherine Rayden in 2005, who is still highly involved with the business at all levels, from overseeing family law matters to business operations.

Area of Practice

We exclusively practice family law and all fee-earners at Rayden Solicitors are specialists in this area. Our team consists of 13 Partners, 7 Legal Directors and 32 solicitors across our offices in St Albans, Berkhamsted, Beaconsfield, Hampstead, Bishop’s Stortford, Harpenden, Epping, London Bridge and Birmingham.

At Rayden Solicitors, clients benefit from our innovative team approach. This allows the appropriate allocation of the right legal resource for every case at all stages, with a Partner overseeing the strategy.

We cover all areas of private family law and advise clients on the following:

• Children – child arrangements; parental responsibility and disputes; children’s rights and protection; step-parent adoption; grandparents’ legal rights; surrogacy law

• Relationships, divorce and separation – same sex divorce; international and ex-post divorce; cohabitation agreements; pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements; domestic abuse; divorce; unmarried couples�� legal rights; Anglo – French divorce

• Finance – divorce financial claims; family trusts, partnerships and offshore assets; financial provision for children

At Rayden Solicitors, we also offer Alternative Dispute Resolution and have solicitors specially trained in these areas. Partner Julian Bremner is a qualified Financial Arbitrator so can determine financial disputes between parties as a quicker and often more cost-effective alternative to court proceedings. As a Child Arbitrator, Partner Emily Watson has arbitrated private law children disputes.

We also offer Mediation as an alternative to lengthy court proceedings where appropriate. Legal Director Che Meakins is a trained mediator and a Specialist Accredited member of Resolution so is committed to adopting a constructive approach to family cases.

We also practice Collaborative Law, providing a holistic approach to resolving family disputes. Partner Paula Butterworth and Legal Directors Lehna Gardiner and Marc Etherington are all qualified collaborative lawyers, giving more options to clients who wish to resolve their family disagreements without using the court process.

Rayden Solicitors also offers an expert Anglo-French family law service. Partner Abby Westell and Legal Director Che Meakins are fluent French speakers and have been growing our French desk. Both Abby and Che are highly experienced in cases involving French nationals, and have acted in many cross-border cases, involving France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

We also often act for international and overseas-based clients when they have links to England and Wales, as well as domestic clients with international links. We also have a network of experts based across the globe with whom we have worked who can advise in relation to offshore assets including complex trusts and other financial structures, investments and foreign pensions.