The Legal 500

Position

‘Britain’s top divorce lawyer’ was Ayesha Vardag’s recent billing by both the Law Society and New York’s prestigious Huffington Post. She is best known for winning the landmark Supreme Court case of Radmacher last year changing the law on prenuptial agreements. Vardag entered divorce law from a blue chip City/international/Bar base. She trained and qualified as a solicitor at Linklaters London and Moscow on project finance work with diamond mines and power stations. She dual-qualified as a barrister and was once Nicholas Mostyn QC’s mini-pupil. The legendary Raymond Tooth did her own divorce then hired her away from the Bar to join his team. Ayesha Vardag established her eponymous firm, now Vardags, in 2005. She has a reputation for hard-hitting litigation, commercial savvy, fearlessness and strategic intellectual vision. This, coupled with an informal no-nonsense style, gritty life experience and empathy in spades, won her a high-value, high-profile client base within weeks of opening her doors. She has acted for or against heirs and heiresses, tycoons, international footballers/polo players, celebrities and royalty. Ayesha Vardag is one of the very few family lawyers to have received the accolade of The Times ‘Lawyer of the Week’. She is regularly sought by the media for expert commentary on the leading cases and legal issues of the day, appearing not least on BBC TV News, CNN and the Today Programme. Her views have been canvassed by the Law Commission. She is sought out as a lecturer, appearing recently in the White Paper conference and at the inaugural session of the Law Society’s public debates, on ‘The End of Marriage As We Know It’. Recent reported cases (since 2007 only) include: S v S [2007] 1 FLR 1496; NG v KR [2009] 1 FLR 1478; Radmacher (former Granatino) v Granatino (No. 1) [2009] 1 FLR 1566; Radmacher (former Granatino) v Granatino (No.2) [2009] 2 FLR 1 181; N v R [2009] 2 FLR 342; Radmacher (formerly Granatino) v Granatino [2010]1 UKSC 42; B v R [2010] 1 FLR 563.

Career

Ayesha Vardag read law at Queens’ College, Cambridge and was the Wiener Anspach scholar in European Law for a Masters at the Universite Libre Brussels. She worked on expert research projects at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and at the UN (IAEA) Legal Division in Vienna and helped draft the nuclear energy Safety Convention. She qualified and worked initially as a finance solicitor at the global City law firm Linklaters (London, Moscow) and then at the New York law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges in London. She is dual-qualified as a barrister of the Inner Temple and did her pupillage at leading professional negligence set 4 New Square. She has run the family law course at 5 Star Law School Queen Mary’s, London. Her training in matrimonial law was with Raymond Tooth at Sears Tooth and she has run her own specialist family/divorce law firm since 2005.

Languages

All Latin languages, Russian and some rusty Urdu.

Education

Cambridge University (1990 (Hons) Law; Universite Libre, Brussels (1991 scholar in European law).