Lawrence Messling appointed Head of Family Law Practice Group

Earlier this year Liz McGrath stepped down from leading the St Philips Family Law Practice Group. As our senior clerk Mark Mansell observed she had served the FLPG with consummate professionalism over the past five years. The FLPG owe her a huge debt for her selfless dedication to it over this time. Under her leadership the FLPG has gone from strength to strength. It is numerically strong comprising 45 dedicated family law practitioners. It can offer expertise in all areas of family law. It has an impressive track record for marketing events, internal training and the development of practice standards.

It is a dynamic group; it has seen significant growth over the past few years in the volume and value of cases. There has been particular growth in the ancillary relief field where credit must be given to the excellent marketing initiatives of the Ancillary relief team, where Vanessa Meachin heads up the team. The Children team also remains very strong and Alistair MacDonald will continue to lead here. None of this could have happened of course without the excellent clerking team of Mark, Ian, Eloise and Wayne.

For those concerned that Liz’s talents may go to waste we can report that Liz remains very actively involved in the leadership of chambers as one of our two deputy heads of chambers. In addition to her leadership commitments, she has a superb practice dealing with both serious children and big money cases which she will doubtless continue to develop. We have no doubt that she will continue to give unstintingly to the Group and that you will see her (if not in Court or conference) at Group events in the coming year.

After seeing Liz off into “retirement” in proper style the Group welcomed Lawrence Messling as its new leader. Lawrence commented:“To be asked to lead this Group is a great honour and privilege. During these early days I have become increasingly conscious of the great legacy which Liz has guarded, maintained and developed. She of course inherited a fantastic legacy from the late David Hershman QC. I recently attended in chambers the Hershman and Levy memorial lecture, a marvellous and moving annual event celebrating the lives of two giants in the field of family law and providing a platform for the expression of serious thought about important current issues by a distinguished speaker (this year Lord Justice Munby). It struck me that the notion of legacy is fundamental to what we are about. Family cases involve looking backwards into the past but also into the future.

This double perspective gives rise to their complexity and challenge. Good decision-making establishes a good legacy for the families involved which will affect them for years if not generations. Whether we contribute to this as social workers, Guardians, accountants, pension experts, solicitors, barristers or Judges, this is what essentially we are about – building new foundations for future family life: good legacies.David Hershman was of course a brilliant lawyer but so much more. He was enormously generous with his time and talent. He was consumed by the case in hand or next project. His professional priorities were his clients and the welfare of chambers. Often it seemed to me that his personal interest or convenience was sacrificed or deferred. Building a good legacy can and often does cost but I am in no doubt now that he had it right, and the countless families and professional colleagues who remember fondly his generosity to them I know would say the same. Liz in particular worked closely with David before she took over as Head of Group. I know that she admired hugely this aspect of David and sought to replicate it in her own leadership. In her own inimitable style she did so.And so the baton has been passed on.

As I survey the horizon it is clear that there are of course serious and imminent challenges, arising from the present economic situation, continuous government initiatives and the impending era of new business models.St Philips Family Law Group, supported by a formidable administrative and business team led by our Chief Executive Chris Owen, is extremely well placed to win these challenges.In doing so, we look forward to joining with you, in building new and good foundations for the families we aim to serve.Suggestions as to how we might better achieve this are always welcome, if you have any, please do not hesitate to let me, our clerking team or chief executive know.”