The team at Blackfords LLP in Woking ‘combines empathy and client care with an unparalleled work ethic’, regularly handling public law care cases where there are parallel criminal proceedings in conjunction with the firm’s criminal team. Practice head Nicola Chamberlain is a qualified mediator; Helen Worden heads up the public law team and is ’simply brilliant’ in the most complex care proceedings; and Kim Wintle is recommended as an ‘astute tactician’. For high-net-worth divorce and private children matters, often with international elements, Linda Lusingu is the go-to.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Accolades

Client satisfaction

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Blackfords LPP provide clients with realistic advice with compassion and understanding.'

  • ‘I have previously worked with Terri-Anne Taylor and I have found her professional and approachable to work with. She is always able to identify the key issue in a case and suggest practical and pragmatic solutions, even in the most difficult of cases.'

  • ‘This is a team which combines empathy and client care with an unparalleled work ethic and strength and depth of litigation experience. They fight fiercely for their clients but also give realistic advice that enables the client to make informed decisions at all stages in the litigation.’

  • ‘Helen Worden is simply brilliant. She knows intuitively when to dig her heels in and when to make concessions. She works like a Trojan. She fights for her clients with realism and vigour. She has vast experience and puts this to good use at each stage that a tactical decision is required, whether that be as to which expert to instruct, which points to emphasise for her client or how to handle an opponent.'

  • 'Kim Wintle epitomises the Blackfords' ethos. She has a work ethic that most solicitors have neither the will nor the stamina to replicate. She is an astute tactician and will fight for her client to the limit of what is possible.'
  • ‘I am always impressed by the lawyers at Blackfords in terms of the depth of their legal knowledge and their ability to strategise in the interests of their client but always keeping the relevant child or children in focus. The most important areas within the areas I am concerned with is availability to the client, provision of high quality legal advice and onward collaborative working with counsel, all of which is second to none. ’

Work highlights

Representing a client who is dual nationality Canadian-British and whose wife is American-British in divorce and finance proceedings, involving substantial assets (c. £5m) in the UK, the US and Canada.
Representing a grandmother as an intervener in a case concerning her grandchild, in relation to a local authority application for a care order – the child having been admitted to hospital with non-accidental injuries.
Acted for a mother in relation to an application by a father pursuant to Article 21 Hague Convention 1980 for contact with their two children in Ukraine; both parents are Ukrainian nationals and the father remains in Ukraine while the mother and children are in the UK.

Practice head

Nicola Chamberlain

Other key lawyers

Helen Worden; Kim Wintle; Linda Lusingu; Terri-Anne Taylor