Rhiannon Lewis of Dawson Cornwell, Stewart Leech QC of Queen Elizabeth Buildings, Phillip Marshall of 1 King’s Bench Walk and Gerald Wilson, of Tanfield Chambers

This session will cover issues relating to the law relating to cohabitees and civil partners, the international recognition of same sex marriages, pre-nuptial agreements, property rights, inheritance and other family provision

Rhiannon Lewis is a partner in Dawson Cornwell; official legal partner to the Alternative Families Show 2011. Dawson Corwell is s specialist family law firm, acting for clients across the UK and internationally. Rhiannon is named as one of the leading family lawyers in London in The Legal 500 and in Chambers & partners. She advises on all areas of the law arising out of family breakdown and its financial consequences, including pre-nuptial agreements, dissolution of civil partnerships and financial statements. She is a member of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the International Bar Association and the International Law Committee of the American Bar Association, amongst other organisations.

Stewart has been in practice at QEB, one of the country’s leading matrimonial sets, since 1992 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel this year.  He specialises in financial cases involving people who are married, in civil partnerships or living together, with or without children, generally involving significant wealth and complex financial arrangements. His cases often have an international dimension and frequently involve jurisdictional disputes. He is bilingual in French and English and has a particular interest in cross-channel cases.  He not only gets involved when relationships break down but when they are just starting out in that he is often called upon to advise in relation to pre-nuptial agreements.

Philip Marshall is a barrister at 1 King’s Bench Walk.  He has extensive experience of complex and "big money" matrimonial disputes at all levels and has appeared in the House of Lords on three occasions: White (2000); Miller and McFarlane (2006) and Mark v Mark (2005). He is named as a Matrimonial Finance Leading Junior in both Chambers & Partners UK Directory and Legal 500 and is a member of the Money and Property (Ancillary Relief) Sub-Committee of the Family Justice Council. Philip was elected national Secretary of the Family Law Bar Association in 2007, is a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and an associate member of Resolution. He is also a regular speaker on matrimonial finance both in London and throughout the country, and is an established advocacy trainer for Grays Inn.

Gerald Wilson, of Tanfield Chambers, practices as a barrister in family and property law, with a particular focus on same-sex couples and their families. He co-wrote Civil Partnership: The New Law, the first practitioners’ textbook on the subject. He gives regular talks for lawyers on the financial consequences of both civil partnership and cohabitation. He has brought several cases under the Human Rights Act extending the rights of same-sex couples, including for reasonable provision under the Inheritance Act, for the transfer of tenancies between separating partners and for the enforceability of their financial agreements. He obtained probably the first parental order for a same-sex couple in surrogacy in September 2010. He is a founder member of the Lesbian & Gay Lawyers Association and has been involved in lobbying and consultation on a range of reforms, including the abolition of the remaining homosexual offences in 2001, civil partnership, and intestacy rights.