From humble beginnings in a converted cobbler’s in East Leeds to a portfolio which includes rockstars and aristocrats and cases worth over £100 million, Stowe Family Law LLP has become renowned for its discreet and dignified family law services over some 26 years. Now the firm has opened the doors to its second office in Hale to meet popular demand.

“ I just want to be able to do my job and do it well,” says Marilyn Stowe, one of the country’s best known divorce lawyers and head of Stowe Family Law LLP. “I still thrive on the responsibility I’m given and I never underestimate it. I never stop second guessing myself to make sure things are perfect, even now. I hope we can continue providing a service from our Hale office that the people of Cheshire will appreciate.”

It is Marilyn’s modesty and demand for perfection that has earned her firm a stellar reputation in the legal profession and led to Marilyn herself being honoured with a number of high profile accolades in her field. She is the first female solicitor outside London to be elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, she was appointed the first Chief Assessor and Chief Examiner of the Law Society’s Family Law Panel in 1998 and is a member of the Legal Advisory Group to the Law Commission.

“The driving force behind what I do is because I care; I have a passionate interest in justice,” she says.

Marilyn Stowe’s wealth of expertise attracts a clientele of leading business professionals, celebrities and the aristocracy to the firm she founded in 1982 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. She has developed tenacious investigative skills throughout her career, tracking down hidden assets in multi million pound international divorce cases. Her prowess was most notably proven in 2003 when she volunteered help to unearth undisclosed and vital evidence that was instrumental in releasing Sally Clark, the mother wrongly given two life sentences for murdering her babies. She has become a renowned expert in her field but she tells Hale and Bowdon that her career path in family law was unplanned.

“I’m a commercial lawyer by training but after my son was born I found myself working all over the world and I couldn’t have kept up that kind of work. Some of my friends asked me if I would handle their divorces and I enjoyed it.

“Most of the work we do is in the region of seven figures and it involves a lot of work with trusts and companies and it can involve more than one country. The more complicated it is the more I enjoy it.”

Marilyn and the firm’s 40-strong team, including 16 lawyers, fully-trained mediators and two forensic accountants who specialise in tracking down hidden assets, deal with divorce on a daily basis. But Marilyn remains an avid supporter of marriage as an institution and believes her experience gives her a unique outlook on her work.

“For the past 20 years, all I have dealt with is divorce. My long and happy marriage brings it home that divorce is, without question, the last resort. I believe in marriage as a foundation for children but marriage has to be for the right reasons.

“I also believe in divorce with dignity - to be able to move on but maintain a reasonable relationship for the benefit of the kids because the impact of divorce on children is unquantifiable.”

The opening of the second set of offices in Hale in June marks a milestone for the firm which has seen its requests from national and international clients grow consistently.

“Cheshire seemed an obvious choice for further growth as many of our clients regularly fly into Manchester airport. We’re only five minutes away now. It may be the start of further expansion, I am steadily working my way South.

“The fact that some very high profile people are keen to make appointments with us, considering they have the choice of every firm in the country, is still a great thrill. We respect that demand and we’ve met it with the new offices in a very convenient location.”

The new office is situated at:

The Camellia Building
38 Oxford Road,
Hale Cheshire
WA14 2EB

Tel. 0161 926 1410