Practice Areas
Ruth is a well-respected family lawyer, accredited as a Specialist in both Family and Child Law by the Law Society of Scotland. She has specialised in family law work for over 20 years, and over that time has built up a strong reputation, with colleagues in the wider family law sphere often referring clients to her. As well as client-focused work, she has been Managing Partner of Macnabs LLP since 2017, responsible for the smooth running, as well as overseeing the strategic growth, of the firm. She is ranked in both Legal 500 and Chambers directories.
Ruth's practice includes a wide range of family law matters - from financial provision cases, cohabitation agreements and claims, as well as pre and post nuptial agreement. Her work also extends to complex child law matters, including applications for adoption, surrogacy cases, relocation applications and Hague Convention work. Ruth has experience of running cases within a number of different forums, and has been involved in family law litigation at Sheriff Court, Outer and Inner House, and UK Supreme Court level, the latter successfully opposing an application for return of children under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. While undertaking the advocacy work for the vast majority of her cases herself, she works equally well with Counsel where appropriate.
After conducting one of Scotland's first financial provision cases to be dealt with through arbitration, rather than litigation, Ruth qualified as a Family Law Arbitrator in 2019, and has sat on the committee of the Family Law Arbitration Group for Scotland (FLAGS) and was appointed as Chair of FLAGS in December 2022. She has spoken about her experience of using arbitration as a dispute resolution process at the annual Family Law Association Conference in November 2021, at the Five Jurisdictions Family Law Conference in Dublin in May 2022, and for the CLT Family Law Seminar in June 2022. Ruth also chaired the Law Society of Scotland's two day conference on Child Law in May 2022, and has spoken at the Law Society's mandatory course for new partners since 2020.
As well as being an advocate for arbitration, Ruth qualified in collaborative practice in 2007, and is the present chair of the Tayside pod of Consensus, the organisation promoting collaborative practice in Scotland.
Ruth is regularly appointed by the Court as a Child Welfare Reporter making recommendations about the care arrangements for children, to taking children's views in the contact of disputes about care arrangements, as well as a Curator ad Litem to children themselves. She is often also appointed by the court as Safeguarder to vulnerable adults in the context of applications for welfare and financial guardianship orders.
Ruth volunteers for the Global Aark charity, offering free advice sessions to families involved in international child care disputes.
