This prestigious guide is an essential resource for ultra-high-net-worth and high-net-worth individuals and families seeking the very best family law expertise. The Spear’s Family Lawyers Index identifies leading practitioners advising on complex, high-value matters, including divorce, cohabitation disputes, child arrangements, nuptial agreements and mediation. This recognition highlights the Payne Hicks Beach Family team’s expertise, dedication and outstanding contribution to the field, reinforcing its position as a leading adviser to high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Baroness Shackleton is ranked as ‘Top Flight’, Nick Manners, head of the Family Department, Ben Parry-Smith, Harriet Errington, Victoria Hingston, Simon Beccle and Matthew Booth are ‘Top Recommended’, Charlotte Skea-Strachan and Luke Scarratt are ‘Recommended’ and Camellia Buckmaster, Katie Parkes, Alex O’Dwyer Curran and Isabella Savill are listed in the ‘Rising Star’ category.
Spear’s spotlights Nick Manners as ‘a best family lawyer name to know’. He is noted for his rapid rise through the ranks at the firm, working closely with the legendary Baroness Shackleton throughout his career and his family law focus on complex financial remedy and children law for uhnw and hnw individuals and families. Nick tells Spear’s, “In our world [of family law], you have to be available, empathetic and energetic,” and “You have to make quick decisions and think on your feet.” Nick has been involved in many of the firm’s most notable family law cases, including Potanin v Potanina [2025] on which he commented that was ‘a real career highlight’ to take a case ‘from the first phone call all the way through to the Supreme Court’.
Baroness Shackleton is acknowledged as ‘Britain’s most feared and revered divorce lawyer’ with industry observers describing her as ‘the greatest family lawyer of all time’. Noted for having ‘a client book unlike any other in the profession’, Fiona is recognised for playing a key role in a great many landmark cases, most recently and notably the landmark case of Potanin v Potanin, where she represented one of Russia’s richest men, Vladimir Potanin.
Linked below with kind permission, this year’s Spear’s Family Lawyers Index 2026 includes:
Baroness Shackleton – ‘Top Flight’ with a focus on very high-profile cases
Nick Manners – ‘Top Recommended’ with a focus on child law and financial remedy
Ben Parry-Smith – ‘Top Recommended’ with a focus on child relocation/abduction and divorce
Harriet Errington – ‘Top Recommended’ with a focus on out-of-court settlements
Victoria Hingston – ‘Top Recommended’ with a focus on complex financial and international disputes
Simon Beccle – ‘Top Recommended’ with a focus on milestone legal cases
Matthew Booth – ‘Top Recommended’ with a focus on matrimonial and Schedule 1 cases
Charlotte Skea-Strachan – ‘Recommended’ with a focus on children’s matters
Luke Scarratt – ‘Recommended’ with a focus on child arrangements
Camellia Buckmaster – ‘Rising Star’ with a focus on complex financial disputes
Katie Parkes – ‘Rising Star’ with a focus on financial matters between divorcing couples
Alex O’Dwyer Curran – ‘Rising Star’ with a focus on complex asset structures
Isabella Savill – ‘Rising Star’ with a focus on financial disputes and jurisdictional issues
Spear’s says that What now distinguishes a leading family lawyer is judgement: knowing which cases to settle and which to fight. It shows in the agreements signed long before a marriage falters, in the divorces concluded without a line in the press, and, where there are children, in two parents left able to raise them once the lawyers have gone. It is that judgement, more than any reported win, that the advisers in this year’s Index are known for.
The Spear’s Family Lawyers Index 2026 showcases the top providers of legal services to HNW and UHNW individuals who are in search of legal advice in the UK and beyond. All lawyers are selected on merit with the rankings drawn up on the basis of peer nominations, client feedback, telephone and face-to-face interviews, data supplied by firms, as well as information gathered by the Spear’s editorial and research teams. The Spear’s Family Lawyers Index forms the core of the Spear’s 500, the key reference bible for HNW advisers.
For further details, see the best family lawyers list for high-net-worth individuals as first published online on 24 June 2026 in The Spear’s Family Lawyers Index 2026
