Jane Craig > Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP > London, England > Lawyer Profile

Jane Craig

020 7753 7533 jane.craig@penningtonslaw.com

Work Department

Family.

Position

Jane headed the family department from 2006 until 31 March 2022, when she stepped down as a partner and became a senior consultant in the firm. She is a recognised expert in high value divorce finances with many years’ experience of cases involving trusts, inherited wealth, complicated remuneration structures and assets overseas. Her expertise includes the preparation of pre nuptial and post nuptial agreements. Jane is also a recognised expert in cases involving unmarried couples and has contributed to a number of significant practice guides to the law in this area. Many of Jane’s cases have an international dimension and she is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL), a worldwide association of practising lawyers who are recognised by their peers as the most experienced and expert family law specialists in their respective countries.

Jane has been ranked in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame since 2020, having previously been ranked as a Leading Individual for many years. She is recognised by Best Lawyers UK 2022 as a leading expert in family law and is a Recommended Lawyer in Spears 500 2022. She is  ranked as a Leading Individual in Chambers UK High Net Worth and Chambers UK.

Jane has played a leading role in the development and practice of family law for 40 years.  She is a former chair of Resolution, the leading organisation of family justice professionals in England and Wales. She was the first private law solicitor member of the Family Justice Council, which advises the government on family policy issues, and chaired its private law Children in Families Committee for six years. She is an active member of Resolution’s Cohabitation Committee, which campaigns for reform of the law to provide protection for vulnerable cohabitants. Jane has represented clients involved in some of the country’s leading reported cases, including T v T, a case relating to jurisdiction in European family disputes and Grey, one of the leading Court of Appeal decisions on the impact of cohabitation on maintenance claims for wives and former wives.

Career

Articled Middlesborough; qualified 1982; joined Manches LLP 1988; partner 1992; chairman of Resolution (formerly Solicitors’ Family Law Association) May 2001 to March 2003. Appointed the private law solicitor member of The Family Justice Council in June 2004; chair of The Family Justice Council Children in Families committee 2005-11; member of The Law Commission’s cohabitation project legal advisory group. Qualified collaborative lawyer. Has contributed to items about family law on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Law in Action’ and ‘Money Box’, as well as commenting regularly in the national and legal press.

Languages

A-level French.

Memberships

Resolution; Family Justice Council Money and Property committee; Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers; Collaborative Family Law; Resolution’s Cohabitation Committee.

Education

Hornsey High School for Girls; Southampton University (1979 LLB 2(1)).