​​​Sophisticated Clients Know Litigation, but Do They Understand Divorce?

Working in the ultra high net worth space often means working through difficult problems with people who are used to solving them. Many of our clients have led teams, set strategy and been through complex litigation before. They quite reasonably expect that experience to help them in a divorce. Often, it does the opposite. 

The challenge is simple: not all litigation is the same. Divorce is not civil or commercial litigation, and treating it as if it were is usually a mistake. On the surface, the process can look familiar; with applications, disclosure, hearings, tactics. But, underneath, the logic is different.​

Civil and commercial cases are about what happened in the past. Divorce is about how people are going to live next. In commercial disputes, pressure and escalation can be useful tools. In divorce, they usually make everything slower, more expensive and much harder to unwind. And when it’s over, the other side doesn’t disappear. There are still carol concerts, parents’ evenings, graduations, weddings and funerals. The financial arrangements may take years to play out. The future is usually, to some extent, shared, whether anyone likes it or not.​

That changes the risk calculation. A move that looks “strong” in a commercial dispute can be a very poor one in a divorce. “Winning” a point on paper can leave everyone worse off in real life.

Explaining this to sophisticated, successful clients can be hard. Good lawyers will sometimes meet resistance, or be told they are being “soft” or “not strategic enough”. In our view, good divorce advice is not about dialling up the fight for its own sake. It is about judgement.

​Knowing when to push.

When not to.

And why restraint is sometimes the most effective strategy in the room.