Deborah Leask

Deborah is an extremely experienced family lawyer/mediator, having qualified as a Solicitor in 1990 and as a Mediator in 1996 gaining her accreditation around 8 years ago. She has been a Partner of Ellis Jones since 2004 and has been co-head of the family department for 20+ years. Prior to moving to Ellis Jones in 2001, Deborah worked as a solicitor in Central London at two very highly regarded “magic circle” practices for around 14 years. She is recognised by Resolution as an Accredited Specialist in Pensions and Complex Finances.

Having worked in the field of family litigation for many years, Deborah is all too aware of the potential damage (both financial and emotional) which court proceedings can have on divorcing couples. She firmly believes that most separating couples are capable of resolving their differences over money and children with the help of an experienced family mediator. However, all too often they end up in a court process instead which can be highly expensive, painfully slow, and damaging to their future relationship as co-parents.

Deborah derives considerable professional satisfaction from helping parties work together through mediation to find an objectively fair solution which they can both live with, and which works for them. This is a far more civilised and constructive method of dispute resolution than the court forum.

With a 36-year career as a family lawyer and 30 years as a mediator, Deborah has a wealth of experience and knowledge. She has a robust and pragmatic style as a mediator and is not afraid to take a directive approach to her mediations, where necessary, if this will assist the parties. Deborah is also qualified to undertake hybrid/integrated mediation which allows far greater solicitor involvement in the process. She finds this a particularly useful form of mediation when handling complex finances, high conflict or domestic abuse.

Deborah is recognised as a Leading Lawyer in Chambers & Partners.

• Complex matrimonial finances involving pensions, private companies, trusts, extensive property portfolios and tax
• High-income cases
• Issues over marital versus non-marital assets
• Schedule 1 Children Act claims
• High conflict disputes
• Cases involving intervenors and 3^rd parties
• Hybrid/integrated mediation

Case study one:

Complex mediation involving a valuable family company in which the husband was a director and had a minority shareholding which he had received as a lifetime gift from his father who had founded the business. The parties (who had children together) were keen to try to remain on good terms despite their polarised positions over how the inherited shareholding should be dealt with on a divorce. As their mediator, Deborah ensured that the company and the husband’s shareholding were properly valued by an experienced jointly instructed expert and the husband’s sustainable income and the options for the extraction of funds were covered fully.  This enabled Deborah to assist the parties to ensure a fair division of the assets was achieved which took account of the risks attached to the shareholding, liquidity and pre-marital contributions.

Case study two:

This mediation involved a large financial contribution made by the husband by way of his asset base which he had built up at the start of an 8-year childless marriage. The central issues in the mediation concerned the extent to which the wife should share in the pre-marital assets and her reasonable housing and income needs, given the high standard of living and quality of the family home enjoyed during the marriage. The parties’ relationship was highly acrimonious and the legal advice they reported having each received from their respective solicitors varied significantly. This caused an obstacle in the mediation. It was therefore agreed that the mediation would be conducted as an integrated mediation with solicitors’ direct involvement at an all-day meeting with Deborah and the parties to resolve the issues. This proved extremely helpful as Deborah was able to find common ground between the lawyers over the ambit of their clients’ claims and helped the parties reach a settlement.