Gregorian Emerson Family Law Solicitors are the pre-eminent family law solicitors in the area of international relocation of children ("leave to remove proceedings").
1. Our credentials:
- Richard Gregorian has personal, as well as professional, experience of successful leave to remove litigation, prior to entering into family law. There is no substitute for first-hand knowledge of the process, its deficiencies and how to maximise one’s position in order to circumvent them.
- Prior to establishing Gregorian Emerson Family Law Solicitors, Richard Gregorian was a commercial law partner in an international banking practice in the City of London. He is a strong believer that commercial and family law are two different worlds in terms of ability, aptitude and client service (inevitably the case where commercial law practice demands exacting standards and accountability because large sums of money are involved). Family law is characterised by a lack of essential skill sets beyond the limited legal knowledge required, formulaic representation of client instructions (the lawyer simply becomes the echo chamber and simple mouthpiece for the client, with the opposition being equally sincere in their belief that they are right) and a belief that the main or only “added value” for a client is to adopt the “blame game”, much criticised by clients as making matters worse. Family law has existed for far too long on the simple truism that there are two sides to every argument, not the more constructive truism that there is the client's truth, the opposition's truth and then “the truth”, with the latter only being discernible by an objective understanding of personalities, psychology, communication and conflict resolution and mental health. Except in very limited cases, there is not a single fact that cannot be turned around 180°- this being the nature of the adversarial, fact driven family justice system. Aware of these truisms and against all legal predictions he received, Richard Gregorian utilised the joint legal and psychological approach which underpins this firm’s approach to maximising successful outcomes for clients, whether by way of agreement or litigation;
- The unique joint legal and psychological strategy devised for your case is the key to its success. It is based on the only unique aspects of a client’s case i.e. the personality and psychology of the individuals concerned, their joint communication and conflict resolution abilities and issues of clinical mental health. The implementation of these strategies ensure that they are presented to best effect to the important decision-makers in a client's case, including CAFCASS, social services, court-appointed mental health experts and the judge. The resultant outcomes are extremely rewarding, all the way from judges acting on a Cafcass recommendation communicated to them by this firm to vacate a four-day fact-finding hearing as the case was completely misconceived by prior lawyers, to a circuit judge screaming in frustration as she had backed the wrong horse believing that a mother who was avoidant of the father’s abuse was, in fact, a parental alienator. The judiciary and the court officers such as Cafcass and social services do a disservice to families since none of them have the complete skill set they require to protect adults and children. Family law is frequently simply opinion led, with those opinions supported by confirmation bias, so that exactly the same reason which fails a case on the Monday will be the reason for its success on the Tuesday. The law may be a very good mechanism to regulate and adjudicate areas of black letter law and precise drafting e.g. contract law or banking law but has little relevance to the workings of human beings, either individually or when they partner with each other in a relationship or when parenting.
- What is required and what we can offer to clients, in their legal representation, from the beginning and throughout, is a service which includes all of the elements believed to be valuable by the family justice system but which it cannot offer e.g. improvements in communication and conflict resolution, mediation, alternative dispute resolution, and a psychological/therapeutic understanding of the dispute, from the beginning and simultaneously.
2. With the stakes being so high for you and your children in leave to remove litigation, it could be significantly detrimental to your case if you do not seek our professional opinion and expertise in this area. We are yet to see an international relocation case run by another law firm which has been properly formulated beyond the simplistic route of fact regurgitation and blame. We have been successful in achieving early agreement in leave to remove proceedings and maximising cases where previous legal advisers have failed to employ a proper strategic approach to the case or failed to present the case in the most efficient way. Because we are able to facilitate a more constructive dialogue between the parents and highlight the underlying issues, we are able to facilitate early resolution of relocation cases through agreement.
Leave to Remove Lawyers
If you have a family dispute that needs resolving, we are here to help and look forward to your call. Please contact us, or call us on 01483 826 470