Ursula is highly respected for her expertise in family law, both in complex financial and children matters, with over 30 years of experience. She has built extensive experience in handling high-value financial issues arising from relationship breakdowns, always adopting a client-centred and commercial approach to dispute resolution. She is exceptionally skilled in advising on wealth protection and preservation, by way of prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements.
Ursula is regularly instructed by asset holders to advise and prepare complex high-net-worth prenuptial and post-nuptial agreements to protect their current and future assets and family wealth. She frequently works in conjunction with Private Wealth colleagues to ensure a holistic approach to family and intergenerational wealth preservation. Divorce and relationship breakdown can disrupt even the most sophisticated wealth planning arrangements, making strategic legal guidance essential.
She has extensive experience in a wide range of high-value cases involving multi-jurisdictional financial disputes and assets held offshore and in trust. Her clients often have family issues involving international aspects and cross-border complexities, such as worldwide assets in multiple jurisdictions, or children being educated in one country while the long-term family home and extended family are based elsewhere. When relationships break down, these factors can give rise to complex legal disputes, including applications for leave to remove, where the Court must determine where the children of the family should reside. Ursula has vast experience in handling such cases.
Ursula is equally at home advising clients with complex children cases, in addition to Schedule 1 of The Children’s Act claims. She is also highly experienced in advising on family-related asset protection in the UK and offshore, ensuring safeguards such as pre- and post-nuptial agreements are in place to protect wealth transferred to future generations before their life circumstances are fully known. She also advises in the area of same-sex marriages, or those living together as cohabitees outside of marriage.
She always adopts a pragmatic and client-focused approach, ensuring her advice is both realistic and cost-sensitive. Ursula puts her client at the centre of all decisions, working in partnership with her clients to ensure the very best outcomes. She is also careful to ensure they are fully aware of any risks associated with their decisions and any potential cost consequences. With access to leading counsel, top financial advisors, arbitrators, and mediators, Ursula ensures her clients benefit from the very best expertise in the field, and she is committed to achieving and exceeding her clients’ expectations whenever possible.
