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A quiet revolution?

25 July 2025 / Jennifer Headon
Issue: 8126 / Categories: Features , Profession , Family , Legal services , ADR , Divorce
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Family law is shifting towards a calmer & more constructive approach to solving conflicts, writes Jennifer Headon
  • Family law is moving away from aggressive, lengthy correspondence toward more constructive, empathetic communication to reduce conflict and improve outcomes.
  • Changes such as no-fault divorce, mandatory consideration of non-court dispute resolution, and the ‘One Couple, One Lawyer’ model are reshaping how family disputes are resolved, emphasising cooperation over confrontation.
  • There’s growing emphasis on mental health, co-parenting, transparency, and judicial scrutiny of legal costs, all aimed at reducing harm and promoting dignity in family law proceedings.

Something has changed in the inboxes of family law practitioners recently. Gone are the long-winded letters that, at best, set out complex legal arguments in excessive detail and, at worst, were unedited regurgitations of a client’s instructions—often allowing abusive spouses to continue a ‘lawful’ campaign of harassment. While such correspondence still exists, it has thankfully become rare.

In a time when personal telephone calls are increasingly infrequent, the humble telephone has re-emerged as a powerful

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Mourant—Stephen Alexander

Jersey litigation lead appointed to global STEP Council

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

mfg Solicitors—nine trainees

Firm invests in future talent with new training cohort

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

360 Law Group—Anthony Gahan

Investment banking veteran appointed as chairman to drive global growth

NEWS
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
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