Gavin Smith
UK Bar Guide 2024
Band 1 : Family/Matrimonial: ADR
Band 1
About
Provided by Gavin Smith
Practice Areas
Financial remedies: arbitrator and private Financial Dispute Resolution evaluator.
Career
Gavin Smith has three decades’ experience as a specialist family law barrister, dealing with all types of financial remedy proceedings following relationship breakdown. He now focusses full-time on his well-established practice as an arbitrator and private FDR evaluator.
Gavin undertakes arbitrations of all kinds, from single-issue disputes to those involving the full range of financial remedy claims, and from high value cases to ones where the parties’ resources are modest. His adjudications span the full spectrum from papers-only awards to hearings lasting several days. In DB v DLJ [2016] EWHC 324 (Fam), Mr Justice Mostyn described Gavin’s arbitration award as ‘a thorough, conscientious and clear piece of work. Its quality is a testament to the merit of opting for arbitration.’
He is also an experienced private FDR evaluator, assisting couples on separation by giving them an assessment of the likely outcome in their case, and thus providing them with a basis for a negotiated settlement.
Gavin sits as a Deputy (part-time) District Judge in the Midlands Region, where he is authorised to hear complex cases in the Financial Remedies Court.
Professional Memberships
Middle Temple; Family Law Bar Association; Resolution; Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb); Forum of Family Arbitrators; Institute of Family Law Arbitrators
Publications
Co-editor of At A Glance (annual) and At A Glance Cloud
Co-founder and co-author of Financial Remedies Practice (annual)
Co-founder of FamilyArbitrator.com
Personal
Married with four children. MA (Oxford)