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Michael is a partner in the divorce and family team.
Michael has been an integral member of the market leading divorce and family team at Withers for nearly 30 years.Michael advises on all aspects of family law (including pre- and post-nuptial agreements) with particular emphasis on the resolution of financial issues for wealthy individuals whether married or unmarried and usually with international interests. Michael has acted in numerous divorce cases involving trusts and businesses. Michael also has extensive experience of children law matters, including international relocation.
His breadth of work involves close liaison with many other specialist practice areas at Withers including the contentious trusts and estates team and the wealth planning teams in London, US, Switzerland and Asia (often stress-testing wealth holding structures and advising families on succession).
Michael's wide variety of clients (from UK, Europe, US, Middle East and Russia) include business owners and entrepreneurs, financiers and other city professionals, landowners, sports and music stars, politicians, and their spouses/partners.
Michael provides expert media commentary on family law issues, and he has chaired and lectured at various family law conferences in England and abroad.
Michael is a certified family law arbitrator, and a trained collaborative lawyer.
Michael is former Treasurer of the European Chapter of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, and curated and chaired an acclaimed education programme at the annual conference in Venice in February 2023. He has been a member of Resolution's Cohabitation Committee since its inception in 1995.
Michael has for several years been listed as a leading family lawyer in the legal directories (including Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, Spears, and Citywealth) in which he has variously been described as follows:
'Michael is a standout lawyer'; ‘a real class act'; ‘measured, sensible and knows his law'; ‘highly intelligent, very efficient and a pleasure to deal with - a really strong practitioner'; ‘is just excellent and often sought after by high net worth individuals'; a ‘first-class lawyer'; and 'he has encyclopaedic knowledge in the area'; and 'an exceptionally thorough and able lawyer…thinking outside and inside the box which so many of the bigger financial cases need'.
When not at his desk, Michael enjoys playing and watching sport (including running his own cricket side, tennis, road cycling and skiing), and spending time with his family.
Recent recognition
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Me in a minute
Family law requires a broad spectrum of skill sets
Having worked as a farm labourer and a silver service waiter before flirting with a career in PR and politics (which involved preparing briefs for ministers on BBC's Question Time, and a weekly bundle of press summaries for the Prime Minister in the early 1990s), I met Withers at a law fair in London and from there embarked on a legal career on which I have never looked back.
Specialising in the demanding and evolving world of family law requires a broad spectrum of skill sets (from in depth legal knowledge, litigation and negotiation to clarity of advice, strategy, and empathy) and that combined with the diverse and idiosyncratic factual nature of each and every case makes the role such an intellectually stimulating one.
Throughout my decades at Withers I have been fortunate to have worked alongside inspirational and highly talented expert lawyers both within the family law team and across the firm's wide range of specialist areas. As issues on divorce straddle other practice areas I am often in liaison with colleagues in the property, commercial, trusts, tax, and reputation management teams whether here in London or in the firm's offices in Europe, the US and Asia.
Outside of the law, successive knee injuries put paid to my captaincy of football teams some years back, although I still run a wandering cricket side set up at university. Besides an interest in art, I also enjoy tennis, skiing, golf and road cycling (which included a 300 mile charity bike ride over three days from Cornwall to London in 2014).
Track record
Non-disclosure case
D v D [2015] - a case involving allegations of non-disclosure, and sharing of future income from offshore contracts entered into during marriage.
Disclosure in divorce proceedings
Tchenguiz-Imerman v Imerman [CA 2010], which changed the law on disclosure and confidentiality of documents between spouses in divorce proceedings.
Trust beneficiaries in divorce
Two further reported decisions of Tchenguiz-Imerman v Imerman [2013] relating to the joinder of trust beneficiaries to financial proceedings on divorce and consequential disclosure.
Opposing mother's application
Acting for the father in the ground breaking children's case of C v C International Relocation [2011], successfully opposing the mother's application to move with the children to live in the US. This case preceded the similar decision by the Court of Appeal in the landmark case of K v K later that year (in which Withers also acted for the successful father).
Asset 45 tracing
OS v DS [2004] creating a new precedent for asset-tracing.
Talks
ThoughtLeaders4 - DR Future of Family Practice May 2022 'Deal making'
Resolution National Conference, Birmingham, May 2022 - Cohabitation agreements
ThoughtLeaders4 HNW Trusts and Divorce conference January 2021 - 'Divorce proofing - surviving an attack'
SGLC webinar on 'variation of orders in pandemic' June 2021
IBC Trusts in Divorce Litigation conference July 2018 - presented cross practice seminar
IAFL Stuttgart - September 2018 - cross jurisdictional panel on international service
Resolution National Conference, Newcastle, April 2016 - panellist on ‘Cohabitation Compared and Contrasted in England and Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland'
IBC Conference on International Cross Border Estate Planning for Divorce, London, January 2016 - speaking on ‘Third Party Rights: How Does the Divorce Court Deal With Them'
STEP (in partnership with IAML) conference in London, December 2014 on the Family Business and Family Law - speaking on trusts and divorce
Legal Week Trust and Estates Litigation Forum, Provence, 2014 - chaired focus group on trust and divorce issues following UK Supreme Court decision in Prest v Petrodel Resources Limited
Legal debate in June 2014 on privacy and transparency in family courts - panel member (with High Court Judge and national newspaper editor)
American Bar Association RPTE Spring Symposia, New York, 2012 - speaking on ‘When a Marriage Goes Global - International Estate Planning Aspects of Marital Planning and Dissolution'
Butterworths Matrimonial Finance and Divorce conference, London, April 2010 and May 2011 - chair and speaker
Insight
External publications
'Tax Planning for Farm and Land Diversification', LexisNexis, divorce chapter
'Resolution handbook on cohabitation law', contributor
Family law piece, FT Weekend Magazine - November 2010
Admissions
England and Wales, 1995
Education
University of Edinburgh, M.A. (Hons)
College of Law, Guildford (CPE and Law Society Finals)
Languages
- English
Memberships
International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) - current treasurer of the European chapter
Chartered Institute of Arbitration
Resolution
Collaborative Family Law
Key dates
- Year joined: 1993
- Year became partner: 2002