Family
Joanna Farrands
As a Partner and Family Solicitor at Moore Barlow LLP, Joanna has over 17 years of experience in dealing with family matters, including divorce, financial matters, high net worth cases, international cases, private children law matters, child abduction, removal from the jurisdiction, and surrogacy matters.
She has achieved the Law Society advanced family law accreditation in respect of private children law matters and child abduction, and she is a collaboratively trained family lawyer and a member of the Surrey Resolution committee.
Her mission is to work with people going through difficult family breakdowns to help them achieve a solution and resolution that works for them. She is highly motivated, articulate, and committed to the Resolution Code of Practice and working with clients following family breakdowns to find the best solution for them to help them move forwards in their lives.
She also has expertise in Japanese language and culture, having spent a year in Japan as part of her law degree, which enables her to handle cases with an international element more effectively.
Victoria Walker
Victoria specialises exclusively in family law and has done for 21 years. She helps clients resolve issues related to the breakdown of their relationship. She is passionate about resolving disputes without court proceedings wherever possible. She is a qualified mediator having trained with the Family Mediators Association.
Many of her clients are in the process of separating or going through a divorce and are looking for help to resolve the division of their assets and financial provision for their children. She's experienced to deal with high net worth matters and complex assets including pensions and businesses.
She regularly acts for parents where there is a dispute about how much time they spend with their children, who their children live with, or where there is a dispute about key issues such as schooling or vaccinations.
Some of her clients are seeking help in cases involving the permanent overseas relocation of children as well as temporary removal for holidays.
Her clients find her approachable and tell her that they like her practical, no-nonsense advice, understanding what their key objectives are and keeping costs in proportion to the issue.
Victoria empowers clients during one of the most turbulent periods of their lives and help them come out the other side in a better situation.
She has worked in London since 2007, she joined Moore Barlow as a Partner in 2018.
Erin Lyon
Erin assists clients in domestic and international disputes relating to finances and children following a relationship breakdown.
She acts in cases both between married and unmarried couples, with particular expertise in complex high-net-worth cases, including involving trust assets, business structures, offshore assets, international property and farming disputes. She also advises on and prepares separation agreements, pre-nuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements.
In addition, she assists clients in resolving arrangements for children, ranging from day-to-day living arrangements to complex and protracted private children law matters concerning applications to internationally relocate, child abduction and cases involving allegations of domestic abuse.
She has extensive experience representing vulnerable clients, including clients subject to the Court of Protection and survivors of domestic abuse (including within injunctive proceedings).
She is a member of Resolution and I am focused on resolving disputes as amicably and constructively as possible.
Charlotte Millard
Charlotte qualified as a Solicitor in 2008 and as a Mediator in 2012. She is committed to assisting clients in a constructive and non-confrontational way wherever possible to achieve the best outcomes, particularly where children are involved.
She is aware that it is very stressful whenever a relationship breaks down and she will provide tailored and robust advice to navigate through the uncertainty and emotional challenges in a cost-effective way considering all options available and your desired outcome. She has a network of other professionals to call upon where needed to provide specific advice to deal with pensions and businesses or property.
She represents clients at all stages of the divorce and separation process and deal with obtaining financial remedy orders including negotiation and providing advice. She also represents clients in relation to disputes involving their children, from providing constructive suggestions to representing at Court where necessary.
She is also able to advise on cohabitation agreements and pre-nuptial agreements.
As a qualified Mediator, she can also provide information on mediation and many other alternative dispute resolution options.
Outside work she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, cycling and walking in the New Forest where she lives. She enjoys sport and play netball and is involved with Sway Cricket Club.
Beverley Cullis
Beverley is an experienced family lawyer, specialising in children related matters.
She has expertise in dealing with complex child arrangements following family break up, including acting for grandparents. She also represents parents in leave to remove cases, where one parent wishes to live abroad with the children or elsewhere in the UK.
She has a particular interest in surrogacy arrangements. She can assist and advise parents through the process of applying for a parental order or advising during the fertility process.
She is regularly involved in child abduction cases, both representing the left behind parent or the parent who has removed the children from their place of habitual residence.
She also advises and assists clients through the divorce/civil partnership dissolution process including settlement of the financial aspects of separation, whether that be via non-court dispute resolution or through the court process. This includes separation involving couples who are not married.
In addition, she drafts cohabitation agreements for unmarried clients who are planning to live together.
The family team at Moore Barlow firmly believe in trying to deal with matters as amicably as possible, as the situation surrounding family breakdown is already difficult enough.
Judith Ball
Partner and head of family department dealing in all aspects of family law, but principally ancillary relief and private Children Act cases; also collaborative law practitioner.
Jan Galloway
Jan has over 30 years experience in all aspects of family law. As of May 2023 she practises solely as a mediator having taken a step back from litigation. She has trained as a mediator with Resolution and with FMA. She is a member of the Family Mediation Council.
Her clients continue to be drawn from many different professions and industry sectors, both in the UK and abroad, and are often high net worth individuals with assets in more than one country. She has worked with clients encompassing all aspects of family law, assisting them when sadly the relationship has broken down and supporting them through the process of securing a financial settlement, often involving complex financial structures and making arrangements for the children. That wealth of experience underpins the knowledge and support she now brings the couple in the mediation forum.
Relationship breakdown can be emotional and distressing for all. She provides clients with a sympathetic and understanding approach and ensure that their discussions are respectful, forward looking and child centred. Her role as mediator is to move the family forward towards a resolution acceptable to all. She has also trained as a coach with Barefoot a fully accredited course provider and she is a member of the International Coaching Federation. She specialises in coaching individuals going through a divorce or separation. As such she also has an understanding of what issues one may be facing and the emotions at play which may create a challenge within the mediation forum and she can assist the couple manage that, offering a better prospect of success. She is also studying a degree in Humanistic counselling to enhance and support the skills and experience she can bring to the mediation process.
She is passionate about family law and the positive evolution of the same towards dispute resolution and keeping families away from the courts, save where entirely necessary. She has a large network of professionals both in the UK and other jurisdictions who can help inform the couple to assist them achieve resolution of all the issues they are facing, providing a full package of support at what can be a very difficult and testing time.
Karen Barham
Karen describes herself as a peacemaker and a deal broker. She joined Moore Barlow LLP (formerly Barlow Robbins LLP) in 2006 bringing considerable knowledge and experience as a family lawyer, having specialised in this area for over 35 years.
She practises exclusively as a mediator and parenting coordinator assisting couples and families when relationships break down. She grasps the issues quickly and has a high success rate. She is experienced in making arrangements for children and resolving financial aspects. Also qualified in Child Inclusive Mediation (CIM), she is qualified to meet separately with children and young people to ascertain their thoughts and views thereby giving them an opportunity to have a voice.
She has served on the boards of the Family Mediation Council and Resolution and continue to sit on Resolution’s Dispute Resolution Committee. In 2016 she was awarded the Resolution John Cornwell award ‘in recognition of outstanding work to support separating families’. In 2023 she was honoured to be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from Surrey Law Society, having been its Family Lawyer of the Year in 2021.
Many families can be assisted to find solutions in out-of-court processes including mediation, collaborative law, early neutral evaluation, private FDRs, arbitration and parenting coordination. Accordingly, she pioneered The Surrey Initiative following which I was invited to join the Family Solutions Group and the Family Procedure Rule Committee Working Group tasked with strengthening non-court dispute resolution. She is delighted to have contributed to the change of the Family Procedure Rules of April 2024.
Team Services
With offices in London, Richmond, Woking, Guildford, Southampton and Lymington, we’re well-placed to support clients in high net worth (HNW) hubs across London and the Home Counties. Our team handles complex financial remedy cases involving trusts, business interests, pensions, inherited wealth and volatile assets (including tech/startup shares), both in the UK and overseas.
We advise HNW clients on pre- and post-nuptial agreements, often coordinating “mirror” agreements across jurisdictions. Our children work includes complex issues such as parental alienation, international relocation, child abduction, and safeguarding concerns including abuse or substance misuse.
Unlike family law boutiques, we work closely with in-house specialists in private wealth, tax, corporate, and litigation to offer a holistic, seamless service- particularly valuable in HNW matters.
We champion non-court solutions, including mediation and collaborative law, and have a standout team led by Hall of Fame mediator Karen Barham. We also offer Accord, our unique “one couple, one lawyer” model for non-contentious separations.
Our expertise extends to modern family issues- advising on cohabitation, Schedule 1 and TLATA claims, surrogacy (domestic and international), and alternative family structures- areas in which few firms operate with confidence or depth.
Legal services for couples
- Divorce services
- Divorce using the same lawyer
- Cohabitation agreements
- Civil partnership dissolution
- Financial settlements
- Pre & post-nuptial agreements
- Separation