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Kingsley Napley’s Medical Negligence Team ‘walks together’ with the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity
Sharon Burkill
We live in an increasingly fast-paced and impatient society. We can communicate with each other instantly, by email, text, social media and FaceTime. At the click of a button, we can purchase and download movies, music and annoyingly addictive games to our smart phones. Our lives are incredibly busy and we are always looking for a shortcut, an express queue or a fast-lane.
As I read the stop press news last week about the possibility Angelina Jolie might be pressing pause on her divorce, given Brad’s reported willingness to address his drinking problem, it got me wondering about whether they were considering a Reconciliation Contract which is a popular post-nup tool in the US.
According to the Office of National Statistics, over a quarter (27.5%) of live births in England and Wales in 2015 were to women born outside the UK. It’s reasonable to assume that a number of other births were children with foreign fathers. What will happen to such families comprised of EU citizens when Britain leaves the EU?
Unlike the “halfway house” position in the UK, all forms of surrogacy are strictly forbidden in France. A contract between a surrogate and the intended parents is void and there are criminal consequences. Any intermediary (e.g. agencies, doctors and clinics) would also be committing a criminal offence and the penalty is doubled if they are acting on a commercial basis.
Three years ago, I wrote the blog “The challenges in divorcing a narcissist” in collaboration with Dr Paul Hokemeyer. My interest was in part a reaction to my clients, who over the years often characterised their spouses as suffering from a narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), and in part to help me work better with the divorce cases that I consider “the difficult ones”. Increasingly, I have since found myself representing families where the complexity is not always the resources (i.e. the wealth) or the international dimension but the people who are involved (although it is very often all three at once).
Sharon Burkill
Natalie Cohen
Caroline Sheldon
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