As a lawyer of 15 years, Kelly Edwards had been inside plenty of court rooms with disgruntled former couples. But as she stood on the shores of Antigua, in the Caribbean, this was a first, even for her.
Specialising in high net-worth divorces, Kelly had been summoned to a superyacht to agree the terms of a separation between a Russian oligarch and his wife.
However, once she had landed in Antigua, the client changed his mind, and docked at a different island, casually paying for Kelly’s flights to the new destination. There she boarded a spectacular super yacht, and attempted to settle his divorce via Zoom link to the judge.
It’s millionaire – and billionaire – clients like these, that Kelly, 40, rakes in a handsome six-figure salary settling disputes for.
If you’re imagining a Meghan Markle-esque Suits character though, you’d be mistaken. Kelly works from a Holborn townhouse with dark green walls and a sweeping staircase. Rather than tight dresses and ankle-breaking heels, her usual uniform is a beige roll neck sweater – accessorised by her sizeable diamond engagement ring.
Kelly began working in 2005, and is a managing partner at her divorce firm, Edwards Family Law. She says she makes around £15,000 from a ‘simple’ divorce but figures can spiral to more than £60,000 if it’s more drawn-out – which around 70% of her cases are.
‘Normal people argue over their house and who gets the children what days of the week,’ Kelly tells Metro.
‘The super rich are still arguing about the house, or houses, but also how their businesses are dealt with, fine jewellery and handbags. I had one client with a wardrobe the size of my old flat.’
One of Kelly’s more memorable cases saw a couple argue over their X-rated belongings.
‘They were having a dispute over who got the sex chair,’ Kelly laughs. ‘I didn’t even know what a sex chair was to be perfectly honest with you.’
Perhaps even more outrageous, was that this argument was between the client and his mistress, who he had two children with.
‘He really wanted the sex chair but in the end his mistress kept it,’ Kelly adds.
‘I’ve also had clients who’s partners have had affairs with their security detail, so I’ve had to help them get new security teams.’
Another absurd ask from a client’s ex-wife during divorce proceedings was a £10,000 a year wine allowance tacked on to the child-support costs. Kelly explains: ‘She got it. The judge said: “We all need a glass of wine at the end of the day when we’re looking after children.”
‘We were acting for the father and obviously objecting to it – we couldn’t believe that one.’
That being said, £10,000 a year is a drop in the ocean for Kelly’s client who was worth half a billion at the time.
And, the Russian oligarch in his super yacht was another divorce that involved eye-watering sums.
‘His wife was asking for 50/50, so that’s half a billion, and he wanted to give her significantly less – around £100 million,’ Kelly explains. ‘They couldn’t reach an agreement.’
And, when parties can’t agree, divorces can drag on, and on.
One of Kelly’s earliest cases almost puts Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s eight year-long £319 million divorce battle to shame, when she managed the high-profile divorce of late property tycoon, Scot Young, which lasted for seven years.
Scot, who was said to be worth £400 million, was imprisoned for six months after refusing to disclose his assets during proceedings. ‘That was a real all-guns-blazing case just after I qualified as a lawyer,’ Kelly recalls.
‘It’s the longest divorce I’ve worked on, Phillip Green even gave evidence.’
While Kelly’s profession can be stressful, it can be dangerous too. Take Kelly Lee McGinnis who fatally shot his wife’s divorce lawyer in 1996. Or family lawyer Judith Leslie Soley, who was shot and killed by her client’s husband in 2011. In 2017, Bryan Young was murdered by his client’s estranged husband, as was divorce lawyer Sara Quirt Sann that same year.
The prenup myth
Prenups have certainly become trendy over the past few years but there’s a couple of misconceptions around them.
Kelly explains: ‘Prenups are not fully legally binding – they are given a lot of weight when done properly and are likely to be upheld.
‘However the most common request I get from clients about prenups is a “cheating clause”.’
This means someone wants a stipulation written in to say that if their significant other is unfaithful, they get nothing in the divorce.
‘People get them drawn up because they want to protect their assets ultimately,’ she adds, ‘and if there is that niggle of doubt that someone might be marrying them for their money rather than love, they want to be able to reduce it if they cheat.
‘In America those kind of clauses have weight but in England it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. English law doesn’t penalise people for adultery whereas some US states do.
‘There’s no point having that clause in there, so I have to talk clients out of it – there’s no point in them paying money for a prenup that won’t stand the test of time.’
Kelly says ‘tempers flare’ in divorce proceedings all the time. ‘I had one client threaten the judge so badly the security button was pressed and he was dragged out of the room,’ she explains. ‘And my old boss had a security guard because he was attacked by a client.’
She’s also been a victim of such abuse herself. ‘I was acting for the wife and we’d reached an agreement, so I went to their shared home to help them divide the artwork,’ Kelly recalls.
‘I was seven months pregnant, and my client’s ex-husband was so angry. He followed me around the house, verbally abusing me, telling me I was a “bottom feeder”, a disgrace and asking how I slept at night. It was unpleasant to say the least.
‘But you’ve got to have a thick skin and take it on the chin. It’s my job to stop tempers flaring because a hot-headed angry and emotional client is one that is never going to settle.’
For anyone thinking of a career in law, Kelly offers some sage advice: ‘Be prepared to deal with people at their most vulnerable and when they’re highly emotional – I also deal with a lot of narcissists – so it’s not an easy ride.
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‘Lawyers are accused of only being worried about money, but I’m doing my job and want the best outcome – to win – and that to me is when both parties are happy.’
Has being surrounded by warring couples taught Kelly anything about love? ‘I’ve been with my husband since we were 21 and we’ve both changed a lot over the past two decades,’ she says.
‘Being a divorce lawyer has shown me that you have to learn to compromise in relationships and dedicate a lot of time and work to them.
‘It’s also taught me to protect my children from any arguments or disputes because I’ve seen how much it can impact kids when their parents split.’
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