Through our close-knit relationships across our firm, our full range of expertise is at your fingertips. Helping you deliver first class service to your clients across their personal and business worlds. Jenny Sargeant, partner lead of our specialist private banking team sits down with family law partners Catherine Costley and Joshua Moger.
In a nutshell what’s your area of expertise?
Catherine Costley (CC): Everything family! Our core offering is divorce and arrangements for children and financial settlements, prenups, midnups, post nups, movement of children, surrogacy and adoption. But we are the people who a client reaches out to when they have a crisis in their family lives – it’s a very trusted relationship and we support our clients through a variety of different “life moments” really living that role of “trusted advisor”.
Joshua Moger (JM): Being the trusted advisor for UHNWs and HWNs for all things family law. That is mainly a blend of strategy, human advice and insight and knowing the client better than they know themselves. Expertise in family law means seeing not just the family law problem and solution, but looking at the wider tax, corporate, estate planning and not to mention emotional impact of any family law decision. We really like to live and breath our clients’ lives.
When do you come across private banks or their clients in your practice?
JM: We share the same ethos as many of the private banks: ‘client service first (second and third)’ – so inevitably most of our clients either already have a relationship with a private bank or, typically where there is a large cash settlement, are looking to build one.
CC: Most of the time there is a financial element to the work we do: whether that relates to a divorce or a nuptial agreement, or financial provision for children of unmarried parents.
Can you give an example of where you best add value?
CC: Our clients are very busy people and we are here to take as much as we can off their desks and on to ours. We step into their problems next to them; whatever those problems are, and we “hold” our clients during what can be the most difficult times of their lives. We want to be available when our clients need us and recognise that often that’s outside of business hours.
JM: By listening to and understanding our clients in some ways better that we know themselves. Clients don’t want or deserve one size fits all lawyers or legal advice. Some want a quick commercial solution and others a deep dive into the best possible outcome for them. Only by really understanding your client can you provide the best tailored solution for them.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
CC: Because clients share so much of their personal and business lives with us we really “step into the shoes of our clients” which is fascinating and really rewarding. An early client of mine was the owner of a car dealership and a country club so I got to understand how a car dealership runs, what the levers are in that business and what these mean to a family economy. I also enjoy working with entrepreneurs and being party to how they think and their motivations and ambitions.
Do you have a mantra or saying that best describes how you work?
JM: Clients aren’t paying you to be a legal post-box – they’re paying for: (a) ‘ten-steps-ahead’ legal strategy; and (b) problem solving not merely problem identifying.
What do you think is key to assisting UHNW families in your area of expertise?
JM: UHNW and HNWs are used to there being a plan. You’ve got to give that to them from the off, with a legal, emotional and practical strategy from the first letter, to the final court order.
CC: Our clients want to know that they have thrown everything they can at getting the best outcome possible in what can be an imperfect system (where courts are involved). Our client wants to feel their lawyer is “all in”.
How can we best bring together “business” and “personal” requirements for our private clients to deliver first class service for them across their business and personal worlds?
CC: Our firm is rare in that we have a full corporate, finance, property, private client and family service: we can incorporate corporate, regulatory, structuring and trusts advice into our family offering. Our clients live through their businesses, the personal and the professional do not live in separate bubbles and it is inconceivable that personal and business can be treated as being separate elements.
JM: VC and fund investors are increasingly aware that “the personal” can destabilise a business. More and more we see family law elements to investor due diligence requirements and a strategic review of family law risk mitigation required through prenups, midnups and postnups. Their priority is ensuring business stability.
What would be the “one thing to watch out for” coming ahead in your area?
JM: We are in the era of private equity and private capital divorces. Pre 2008 it was the bankers, post 2008 it was the entrepreneurs. With the rise of private equity and venture capital in the UK in the last decade we are now in the era of private equity divorce.
CC: We specialise in working with clients with businesses in the VC and private equity space and we have deep knowledge of this sector so that we can understand the financial levers our clients are dealing with. When we look at things from a wider lens the number of potential solutions increase and provide clients with more freedom within what is often a constrained process.
Our connections across our firm are here to provide you with all the expertise you need so if you want to continue any of these conversations or have any family law queries, please do feel free to get in touch with Catherine or Joshua.
For more information about the Family Law team please click here.
For any Private Banking related queries please contact Jenny Sargeant.
