1 Hare Court

Family law.

Specialising in all areas of private family law, including financial remedy proceedings; disputes as to jurisdiction and forum conveniens; recognition of foreign marriages and divorces; relationship agreements; cohabitation claims under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996; financial provision for children under schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989; claims brought by spouses and dependants under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975; applications in the Court of Protection; press exclusion and reporting restrictions in the Family Court.

Katherine is ranked as a leading barrister in the field of matrimonial finance and is regularly led by KCs or instructed alone against them. She is noted for her handling of cases that are often high-profile and reputationally sensitive and which engage issues of valuation, tax, non-disclosure, offshore trust structures, and the status of agreements. Katherine is recognised as a “go-to for complicated cases with an international element”, particularly those cases involving issues of jurisdiction and forum non conveniens. She has been instructed as an expert witness on English law in South Africa and provided advice and/or representation in the Cayman Islands, the BVI, the UAE, and Gibraltar.

In every case, Katherine’s focus is aimed at achieving an early favourable settlement, the details of which are formalised efficiently and discreetly. Her cases which are resolved by contested hearing feature regularly in the law reports and address issues across the full matrimonial finance spectrum, ranging from the treatment of non-matrimonial assets (WX v HX [2021] EWFC 14, in which Katherine was the only junior instructed in a case involving four silks), to Part III proceedings brought in this country subsequent to a foreign divorce (AG v VD [2021] EWFC 9).

Katherine is a trained mediator and sits as an early neutral evaluator, most frequently as a private FDR Judge, where she brings to bear her “fantastic” and “user-friendly” manner to help parties reach an agreement without further costly litigation.

Publications:

Katherine authored the chapters on jurisdiction in the latest edition of Rayden and Jackson on Divorce and Family Matters (the leading family law practitioners’ text). She also lectures widely both in-house and for legal training providers.

Called 2007; Lincoln’s Inn.

Conversational Spanish speaker.

Central Newcastle High School (GDST). Christ Church, University of Oxford (BA (Hons) Jurisprudence). Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge (LLM); BPP Law School (BVC).

Katherine represented Cambridge University at netball, and continues to enjoy playing socially, when time permits. In a past life Katherine ran competitively, but she now enjoys the more leisurely pursuits of skiing, sailing, and travel.