IT TAKES £60 million to get on the latest
Sunday Times Rich List, but only £60 for a couple to give Notice of Marriage at their local register office. A word of warning for the wealthy and not-so-wealthy before rushing up the aisle: the average marriage lasts only 11 years, and if you divorce in London, Leeds or Liverpool, your assets may well be halved.
A recent Grant Thornton survey found that 63 per cent of all divorces last year ended with the family wealth evenly split between husband and wife. This follows the watershed case of White v White in 2000, when the House of Lords ruled that equality should become the guiding principle for future settlements. Bruce Blair, QC, says: “Before White, wives were often getting an unacceptably raw deal. From a husband worth £40 million, sometimes even after a long marriage, they would only get £5 million to £6 million,” But now husbands are less ready to rush to divorce. Charles Howard, QC, explained: “Since White, our divorce laws have become a disincentive to marriage for wealthy people. ”
Nor do prenuptial agreements guarantee protection. Despite the growing popularity of agreements, judges are not obliged to enforce them. In the world’s most generous divorce jurisdiction, more big money divorces are now being fought out via English courts. Notable examples include the £30 million recently awarded to Lady Sorrell, for 33 years wife to Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of the £7.8 billion WPP empire.
F. Scott Fitzgerald recognised that the rich are different from you and me. Yet when it comes to courtroom battles, their emotions become all too human: greed and revenge serve as daily fodder for the leading divorce silks. “Our chambers do a lot of the high-money cases. If a couple is worth £10 million or £20 million, they can afford to have a right barney in court for £500,000 a side, sometimes more than that.
In many cases, costs don’t matter much. All the best family lawyers are rarely conscious of costs, although it is a matter of honour to keep your eye on it,” Blair, head of the fashionable divorce chambers, 1 Hare Court, says. He cites three ingredients for a successful marriage: an active sex life, a tidy home and no arguments about money.
The star performer of Hare Court — and arguably of the family Bar — is Nicholas Mostyn, QC, who labels himself “Catholic, Welsh and Wagnerian”. “He’s head and shoulders above the rest,” the solicitor Jeremy Levison says.
Dragging on his Marlboro Lights, Mostyn confides: “All the things I like doing are being banned by the Government. Hunting . . . banned. Smoking. . . . banned.” A natural showman, flamboyant and entertaining, Mostyn’s staccato delivery is matched by a formidable intellect and engaging wit. As well as Lady Sorrell, he has represented many wives in high-value cases — among the most prominent Zoe Rowland, who claimed a share of her former husband’s future inheritance. The Rowland family is reported to be worth £690 million. Understandably, Mostyn rejects the view that London is the divorce capital of the world as “melodramatic hyperbole”.
Another wealthy couple — Alan and Melissa Miller — recently fought a House of Lords battle over their millions following their thousand-day marriage. Representing Melissa, 35, Mostyn used the invective “spendthrift termagant” to characterise Alan Miller’s view of his former wife. The phrase stuck. A multimillionaire fund manager, Miller found himself targeted by columnists everywhere. His QC, James Turner, explains: “When Mostyn’s on the other side, my clients can find him infuriating. They think it’s personal when it’s not, and he gets under their skin. He can catch people telling a lie, which ruins their credibility. That’s part of the reason for his tremendous success.”
Despite his parents’ seven marriages between them, Mostyn remains an optimist: “People marry for sentimental reasons, they don’t get married for economic reasons. Yet many get divorced for insubstantial reasons. They don’t make a big enough effort. Doing a divorce where there’s no money is very easy, there’s nothing to divide. It’s the middle income, middle England cases that pinch very hard. But if you’re worth
£50 million, you might think £25 million is a price worth paying to get out.” His diary crowded with Rich List clients, anxious to preserve their wealth, Mostyn does not shy away from doing pro bono work. Nor does he neglect his faith, pointing out that “the last Pope gave instructions to Catholic lawyers to promote continuance of the marriage bond if possible”.
Mostyn apart, there is a clutch of prominent silks in the field: Barry Singleton, QC, and Bruce Blair, QC, born on the same day, have both just turned 60. Singleton’s clients have included Paloma Picasso. Renowned for “giving it to you right between the eyes” according to one opponent, Singleton receives much praise. “Highly intelligent. Appeals to the judge — intellectually impeccable,” says one solicitor. “Outstanding and very direct,” comments another. Mostyn is typically more pungent: “Barry’s an old bruiser. No quarter given. Off the playing field he’s quite charming; on the playing field, Chopper Harris.”
According to the solicitor Douglas Alexiou, Blair is “more deliberate, extremely thorough and a very capable performer”. He’s also praised for his “sound judgment and first-rate negotiation”. Elsewhere, Andrew Moylan, QC, “has tremendous objectivity”, Lucy Stone, QC, is “extremely good with clients”, Lewis Marks, QC, is “a prodigious worker”, Martin Pointer, QC, is “aggressive and acerbic”, Nicholas Francis, QC, is “a capable advocate”, Jeremy Posnansky, QC, is “very clever”, and Charles Howard, QC, “has a fine analytical mind”.
David Davidson, family head at Charles Russell, echoes several solicitors in praising James Turner, QC, as “a superb all-round lawyer, terribly clear in the way he advises clients, a good negotiator and post-White (where he acted successfully for Mrs White), he has really shot up to the top”. As well as the White and Miller cases, he has also acted for Janan Harb, former wife of the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
An old-fashioned Bar practitioner, Turner has a healthy criminal and medical defence workload on top of a substantial divorce practice. “I enjoy the variety, I’d get very bored doing just matrimonial ancillary relief — that’s often like being a cross between an accountant and a social worker.” He likes doing international child abduction work “because there’s a lot of interesting law in that area”.
A father of five, Turner enjoys the human aspect of his work as much as the law involved: “You have got to strike a balance between giving objective advice to clients and empathising with their situation.” Ignoring the Hawaii Five-O ringtone on his mobile, he summarises the standard advice he gives: “Whatever people tell you, there are no fixed rules. Every case is different. However much you may want to bitch and have a go at the other side, tear them limb from limb, it’s going to cost you a lot financially and emotionally if you go down that path. Six months down the line, you won’t feel the same.”
His advice? “Settle if you can. And if there are kids, it’s essential that you maintain a working relationship.” Turner reveals: “After my own marriage broke up, I got a bit more sympathetic to behaviour I’d regarded as childish. When it hits you, you behave in just the same way. You suddenly start to understand why people behave as they do.” Now separated from his wife for ten years, he adds: “We have never actually got round to getting a divorce.”
LEADING FAMILY SILKS: MATRIMONIAL FINANCE
- Richard Anelay, 1 King’s Bench Walk
- David Balcombe, 1 Crown Office Row
- Bruce Blair, 1 Hare Court
- Philip Cayford, 29 Bedford Row Chambers
- Jonathan Cohen, 4 Paper Buildings
- Nicholas Francis, 29 Bedford Row Chambers
- Charles Howard, 1 King’s Bench Walk
- Valentine Le Grice, QC 1 Hare
- Lewis Marks, Queen Elizabeth Building
- Philip Moor, 1 Hare Court
- Nicholas Mostyn, 1 Hare Court
- Andrew Moylan, Queen Elizabeth Building
- Martin Pointer, 1 Hare Court
- Jeremy Posnansky, 1 Hare Court
- Camden Pratt, 1 King’s Bench Walk
- Timothy Scott, 29 Bedford Row Chambers
- Robert Seabrook, 1 Crown Office Row
- Barry Singleton, 1 King’s Bench Walk
- Lucy Stone, Queen Elizabeth Building
- Paul Storey, 29 Bedford Row Chambers
- James Turner, 1 King’s Bench Walk
