Gavin has over 20 years' experience as a specialist family law barrister. He handles all types of financial remedy proceedings in relation to relationship breakdown, with particular expertise in cases involving an international dimension.

Gavin is a leading expert on the international and domestic enforcement of maintenance orders, with a number of publications to his name in this field, including the authoritative chapters on the subject for Rayden & Jackson.

He also co-edits the financial practitioners' 'bibles', At A Glance and @eGlance, and co-authored the highly acclaimed Financial Remedies under the Family Procedure Rules, published in April 2011.

In parallel with his work as a barrister, Gavin has an expanding alternative dispute resolution (ADR) practice, being qualified both as a mediator and as a collaborative law practitioner. He was trained by Resolution, the specialist family law solicitors’ association.

Gavin is one of the very first practitioners or former judges to have been trained and accredited as arbitrators under the new family arbitration scheme which was introduced on 22 February 2012. As such, he is a member of the Family Arbitration Panel of the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

Gavin believes it is important to offer clients a choice of process for resolving their disputes: “While there will always be a nucleus of cases which, for whatever reason, will require adjudication by a judge, I am convinced that the majority of cases are capable of resolution through some form of ADR. ADR has the clear advantages of being swifter, cheaper, less acrimonious and more private than the traditional court route.”

Before becoming a full-time barrister, Gavin graduated from Oxford University, then worked at the European Commission and the European Parliament, and as an EU affairs consultant. He says he finally chose family law because: “I wanted to provide a service to individuals, not big organisations.”

Notable cases

Gourisaria v Gourisaria [2010] EWCA Civ 1019; August 13, 2010

NA v MA [2006] EWHC 2900 (Fam), [2007] 1 FLR 1760: November 24, 2006

TL v ML and others [2005] EWHC 2860 (Fam), [2006] 1 FLR 1263: December 09, 2005

Chorley v Chorley [2005] EWCA Civ 68, [2005] 2 FLR 38, CA: January 12, 2005

C v C (Brussels II: French conciliation and divorce proceedings) [2004] EWHC 1959 (Fam), [2005] 2 FLR 14: June 28, 2004

Mubarak v Mubarik [2004] EWHC 1158 (Fam), [2004] 2 FLR 932: May 14, 2004

Dharamshi v Dharamshi [2001] 1 FLR 736, CA: December 05, 2000

Roker International Properties Inc v Couvaras [2000] 2 FLR 976: August 17, 2000

Abdi v Jama [1996] 1 FLR 407, CA: May 25, 1995

Other publications of note

Gavin co-authored Enforcing Financial Orders in Family Proceedings (Butterworths, 2000) and has recently written a well-received article on the enforcement aspects of the new EU Maintenance Regulation, published at [2011] International Family Law 187.

He produces a monthly 'Finance Cases Round-Up' for Class Legal, which can be accessed at http://www.classlegal.com/site.aspx?i=pg4610