Vardags’ Spanish Desk delivers a bespoke legal service to HNW and UHNW individuals, their families, and businesses, based in Spain. The team, led by Founder and President Ayesha Vardag, comprises the finest lawyers, with unrivalled expertise in the area of judicial dissolution of cross-border marriages and cases involving jurisdictional disputes and international assets. Our Spanish Desk also work in close partnership with a network of contacts based in Spain, including banks, family offices, tax advisors and wealth managers.
Vardags has unrivaled expertise in the area of judicial dissolution of cross-border marriages and cases involving jurisdictional disputes and international assets. We will help you to ensure that the case is considered in the court of the state where your position is stronger. Another area of our competence is the valuation and tracking of international assets.
If you are in an international relationship, the jurisdiction in which your divorce proceeds could make a huge difference to the final outcome. London, as the divorce capital of the world, is known for making generous awards to the financially weaker parties, and the court has a wide discretion in what it awards. Where you are entitled to divorce rests on a mixture of European and national law, but is generally determined in relation to where each party is habitually resident or domiciled. If the dispute is between two European countries, the person who petitions first may be determinative. It is therefore vital not to delay in taking legal advice promptly. Very often, a British person living abroad is able to access the English justice system, without necessarily being in the country at the time.
Proceedings can also be initiated if one party wants to move to another country with the children, given that the permission of the other parent, or the court, is required. If you are caught in this situation, then you may need to seek legal advice. Family law issues are often sensitive and can be difficult to address with your lawyer. At Vardags, we understand the need to express yourself freely and that it is often easier to discuss your private matters in your mother tongue.
Vardags’ services extend well beyond divorce and family law, and encompass reputation and privacy, property, corporate, criminal defence, commercial and civil litigation, employment, and professional negligence.
We offer a free consultation to suitable clients, typically those where the family's net assets are in excess of £1m or the combined income is in excess of £150,000
“Britain’s top divorce lawyer” Ayesha Vardag rose to fame for winning the landmark Supreme Court case of Radmacher v Granatino in 2010, changing the law to make prenuptial agreements legally enforceable in England and Wales.
Graduate Trainee Olivia Fanizza read Modern Languages (French and Spanish) at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. Olivia is training with our family team, where she has worked on a number of enforcement applications and, most recently, assisted on complex jursidiction cases which require urgent action.
Graduate Trainee Ben Gale read History and Spanish at Lincoln College, Oxford, graduating with a First. Ben speaks fluent Spanish, and completed a 10 month legal internship at Domènech Abogados, in Barcelona, Spain (2018-19). Domènech Abogados is an international law firm specialising in family and private client law.