Ayesha Vardag

Known for her fearless litigation style, strategic brilliance, and passion for her cases informed by her own experience of divorce, Ayesha has an ultra-high-net-worth, high-profile client base second to none, made up of clients who expect the very best. Her reputation has been built on handling some of the most complex family law cases in recent history, including landmark victories in the Supreme Court, High Court and Court of Appeal. 

Accolades

• GG2 Woman of the Year 2023, awarded for consistent high achievement. 

• “Britain’s top divorce lawyer” was Ayesha Vardag’s billing by the Law Society, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Manchester Evening News, Daily Mail, OK! Magazine, Cosmopolitan and HuffPost US. 

• TIME Magazine featured Ayesha as “The Diva of Divorce”. Other outlets to feature this sobriquet include the Financial Times, BBC News, the Times, the Telegraph, Daily Mail, the Sun, Easy Living, and OK! Magazine.  

• The Evening Standard called her “one of the star lawyers turning London into the divorce capital of the world”. 

Education

Ayesha read Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and subsequently secured a Duke of Edinburgh award for membership of the Inner Temple. She was a Cambridge Wiener Anspach scholar for a Masters in European Law at the Université Libre Brussels.

Press & MEDIA

Ayesha is a regular presence in both national and international media, offering expert insight on landmark cases and legal issues. She’s appeared on BBC News, CNN, the Today Programme, Newsnight, and Channel 4. Her commentary has been published in The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, Spear’s Wealth Management, and Business Quarter, and her views have even been canvassed by the Law Commission. 

Career 

Ayesha Vardag’s legal career is as diverse as it is distinguished, spanning continents and disciplines. Dual-qualified as both a solicitor and barrister of the Inner Temple, she began her career with leading international law firms, including Linklaters in London and Moscow, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges in London. Her early work included high-level legal research at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the United Nations’ IAEA Legal Division in Vienna, where she contributed to drafting the nuclear energy Safety Convention. 

Ayesha’s formidable negotiation and litigation skills were forged in top-tier commercial law environments and refined through specialist training in professional negligence and family law. Ayesha’s transition into family law was shaped by hands-on experience with some of the field’s most prominent figures and informed by her own personal journey through divorce. 

Combining razor-sharp financial acumen with empathy and lived experience, Ayesha is known for her versatility and precision in handling complex matrimonial disputes. She founded her own specialist firm in 2005, which evolved into Vardags – now a leading name in international divorce and family law. Ayesha has represented clients across the globe, including heirs, heiresses, tycoons, international athletes, celebrities, royalty, and other ultra-high-net-worth clients. Her reputation as a legal powerhouse is built on her ability to navigate high-stakes, cross-border cases with intellect, passion, and flair. 

She has been noted as acting in almost all of the biggest cases running through the family courts, for clients including: 

• Li Quan in the international tiger charity case; 

• The Marchioness of Northampton in her high-profile settlement; 

• Yasmin Prest, spouse of Nigerian oil tycoon Michael Prest, in the High Court case which ran into the Supreme Court corporate veil victory of Petrodel v Prest; 

• Michelle Young, obtaining the suspended committal of Scott Young for non-disclosure; 

• Meshkah Tawfik, the wife of a Qatari prince and; 

• The former Miss Malaysia, in Chai v Peng, winning jurisdiction in the High Court and Court of Appeal after a battle that spanned two hemispheres. 

Vardags has grown into a powerhouse of over one hundred team members, with three offices across the UK – and now, in 2026, a newly opened office in Milan. This international expansion reinforces the firm’s deepening Italian connection, a natural extension of Ayesha’s personal and professional ties to the country, where she now lives. 

Having established itself as the leading family law firm within what’s often called the “magic circle,” Vardags has broadened its scope to include private client, civil litigation, and criminal defence departments. With this multidisciplinary offering, the firm delivers bespoke legal solutions tailored to the full spectrum of its clients’ needs—both in the UK and abroad. 

Languages

Ayesha is a native English-speaker, is fluent in French and Italian, has conversational Spanish, and rusty Russian, Urdu and Portuguese.

Personal

Ayesha Vardag descends from the Pashtun Lodhi dynasty, which ruled parts of India before the Mughal Empire. Raised in Oxford by her English mother, who worked at New College, Ayesha grew up surrounded by stories of her father – a barrister, politician, and the youngest-ever senator of Pakistan, educated at Magdalen College. A passionate advocate for democracy, he was repeatedly imprisoned under martial law, drawing support from Amnesty International, and survived three assassination attempts. Her grandfather was exiled by the British for his pro-independence stance, while her grandmother lived in royal tradition, carried in a palanquin until marriage, later becoming an exiled princess in Saudi Arabia before her husband was recalled to serve as Mayor of Karachi. 

Ayesha (pronounced I-sha) was named after the legendary heroine of Rider Haggard’s novels “She” and “The Return of She”, immortalised in film by Ursula Andress. She is a lover of opera, travel, cinema, and drama, and leads a vibrant family life with seven combined children, six dogs, six cats, and twenty horses. A committed amateur equestrian, she has previously competed in eventing and showjumping through her private competition yard, Vardags Equestrian, based in West Sussex. She currently resides in Italy, spends regular time in England, and enjoys holidays at her residence in Dubai. 

Reported Cases

• TY v XA [2024] EWFC 96 
• CG v SG [2023] EWHC 942 (Fam)
• GA v EL [2023] EWFC 187 
• GA v EL (No 2) (Post Separation Accrual) [2023] EWFC 206
• FRB v DCA [2019] EWHC 2816 (Fam)
• FRB v DCA (No. 2) [2020] EWHC 754 (Fam)
• FRB v DCA (No. 3) [2020] EWHC 3696 (Fam)
• FRB v DCA (No. 4) [2021] EWHC 116 (Fam)
• AB v CD (No 1) [2019] EWHC 1695 (Fam) 
• AB v CD (No 2) [2019] EWHC 2244 (Fam)
• Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18
• Al-Baker v Al-Baker [2016] EWHC 2510
• Al-Baker v Al-Baker [2015] EWHC 3725 (Fam)
• Al-Baker v Al-Baker [2015] EWHC 3229 (Fam)
• Quan v Bray & Anor [2015] EWCA Civ 1401
• Quan v Bray & Anor [2015] EWCA Civ 1253
• Quan v Bray & Ors [2014] EWHC 3340 (Fam)
• Chai v Peng & Ors [2017] EWHC 792 (Fam)
• Tan Sri Dr Khoo Peng v Pauline Siew Phin Chai [2015] EWCA Civ 1312
• Chai v Peng [2014] EWHC 3518 (Fam)
• Chai v Peng [2014] EWHC 3519
• Chai v Peng [2014] EWHC 1519 (Fam)
• Chai v Peng [2014] EWHC 750 (Fam)
• AM v SS [2014] EWHC 865
• AM v SS [2014] EWHC 2887 (Fam)
• AM v SS [2013] EWHC 4380 (Fam)
• Young v Young [2013] EWHC 3637 (Fam)
• Met v Hat [2013] EWHC 4247 (Fam)
• B v R [2009] EWHC 2026 (Fam) [2010] 1 FLR 563
• Radmacher (formerly Granatino) v Granatino (Rev 4) [2010] UKSC 42
• Radmacher v Granatino [2009] EWCA Civ 649 [2009] 2 FLR 1181
• Radmacher v Granatino [2008] EWCA Civ 1304 [2009] 1 FLR 1566
• NG v KR (Pre-Nuptial Contract) [2008] EWHC 1532 (Fam) [2009] 1 FLR 1478
• N v R (Injunction) [2008] EWHC 1347 (Fam) [2009] 2 FLR 342
• S v S (Non-Matrimonial Property: Conduct) [2006] EWHC 2793 (Fam) [2007] 1 FLR 1496