★ Beverley · Chambers UK 2026 · Legal 500 · Resolution member

Beverley's boutique family-law practice, at Hodgson House.

Founded by Claire Withers, twenty years a family lawyer in East Yorkshire and beyond, ranked in Chambers UK 2026 for Family/Matrimonial in Yorkshire. A specialist five-person team on Flemingate, opposite Beverley Minster, handling divorce, financial settlements, children arrangements and pre-nuptial agreements. The boutique alternative to the high-street generalist, for the cases that need it.

"An expert in her field who can navigate complex issues with ease and confidence." Chambers UK 2026 · on Claire Withers

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625-star reviews

Band 4Chambers 2026 Yorkshire

20 yrsat the bench

Resolutionfounding principles

The Kingston Family Law team in the firm's Hodgson House office on Flemingate, Beverley

Chambers UK 2026 · Legal 500 · Wiselaw Leading Lawyer · SRA regulated · Resolution member · Cyber Essentials certified

Practice areas

Four pillars. One bench. Specialist focus.

The work the boutique exists for. Each area is led by a named lawyer, with a fixed scope discussed at the first call and a fee agreed in writing before anything goes on the clock.

Financial Settlements

Form E, business interests, farms, pensions.

Claire's core specialism: complex high-value matrimonial finance for business owners, CEOs, landowners, farmers and senior professionals. Form E disclosure, single joint expert valuations of private companies and partnerships, pension sharing orders on SIPPs and final-salary schemes, ring-fencing of pre-marital and inherited assets. Post-Standish (UKSC 2025), the matrimonialisation argument is now run on almost every farm and family-business divorce in East Yorkshire. Boutique attention on cases the high street tries to template.

Divorce & Separation

No-fault divorce, agreed-form, contested.

The 2022 reform made the divorce itself simpler. The hard part, separating the finances and the children, is still where the cases live. We act for the partner who wants to do this calmly, the one who needs to defend a business interest, and the one who is being pushed into a settlement that does not reflect what they brought to the marriage. Specialist focus on complex separations involving overseas assets, second homes, or trust structures.

Children Arrangements

Live-with, spend-time-with, school holidays.

Child arrangements orders, parental responsibility, specific issue and prohibited steps orders, relocation cases inside and outside the jurisdiction, school holiday contact disputes. Resolution-aligned: the parenting plan and consent order come first, and court is the backstop, not the opening move. Where court is needed we are clear about timetable, cost and likely outcomes from the first meeting.

Wealth Protection

Pre-nuptial, post-nuptial, cohabitation.

Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements drafted with the post-Radmacher weight in mind, cohabitation agreements for unmarried couples buying together, separation agreements that hold up under later scrutiny, declarations of trust on property held in unequal shares. The sit-down-before-it-goes-wrong end of family law. Often the single most cost-effective hour a couple spends with a solicitor in their lifetime.

The team

Five people. One Beverley office.

Photographed in the Hodgson House meeting room, where the first meetings happen. The faces on this page are the faces you will meet.

Claire Withers

Partner & Managing Director · FCILEx

Chambers UK 2026 Band 4 Family/Matrimonial Yorkshire. 20+ years. Legal 500.

Alicia Baron

Associate Solicitor

Director since June 2025. Family and matrimonial finance.

Ryan Revell

Associate Solicitor

Children matters, separation, dispute resolution.

Melanie Dawes

Senior Paralegal & Practice Client Manager

First voice on the phone. Triage, intake, client care.

Our story

From a personal practice to a Beverley boutique.

Claire Withers spent twenty years across local, national and specialist family-law firms before opening her own practice at clairewithers.co.uk. As the work grew, so did the team. In 2025 the practice formally became Kingston Family Law, a boutique built around specialist family work rather than the everything-under-one-roof high-street model that surrounds it. The personal-brand site now redirects here.

The office sits in Hodgson House on Flemingate, the Victorian core of what was once Richard Hodgson & Sons tannery, which employed hundreds of Beverley people from 1812 until its closure in 1978. Wykeland rebuilt the surrounding site as the Flemingate retail and leisure development that opened in 2015. Beverley Minster, finished in 1425, looks across at our front door. Three centuries of Beverley work, on one street.

"Renowned for her no-nonsense, straightforward approach to family law." Legal 500 · on Claire Withers

2003

Claire qualifies and begins twenty years across local, national and specialist family-law practices in East Yorkshire and beyond.

2011

Elected Treasurer of Hull & East Yorkshire Resolution. Holds the role until 2017.

2021

Nominated for Chartered Legal Executive of the Year at the LexisNexis Family Awards. Wiselaw Leading Lawyer.

2023

Kingston Family Law Ltd incorporated at Hodgson House on Flemingate, Beverley. The clairewithers.co.uk practice rebrands and consolidates into the new firm.

2025

Kingston Family Law opens formally as a boutique family-law practice. Alicia Baron joins as second director. Ranked in Chambers UK 2026.

Today

Five-person team at Hodgson House, opposite Beverley Minster. 62 five-star reviews on ReviewSolicitors.

Claire Withers, Partner and Managing Director, seated at the Hodgson House boardroom table in Beverley

Where the practice goes deepest

Complex matrimonial finance, in farming and family-business country.

East Yorkshire is agricultural country and small-business country. Most of the financial settlements Claire takes on involve a private company, a partnership, a farm, a pension portfolio or a trust structure that the high-street generalist is not set up to argue with confidence. Claire's day-to-day is Form E disclosure on multi-entity portfolios, single-joint-expert valuations, pension sharing orders on SIPPs and final-salary schemes, and ring-fencing of pre-marital or inherited interests.

Since the Supreme Court's Standish v Standish decision in 2025, the "matrimonialisation" question, when does a pre-marital asset stop being separate property, is now live on almost every farm and family-business case in the region. We bring that argument to court when it is right to and we settle it across a table when settlement is better than judgment. The boutique gets to focus on the case in front of it.

Form E disclosureMulti-entity portfolios, overseas asset trees, beneficial-interest mapping.
SJE valuationsSingle joint expert accountants and land agents for private companies, partnerships, farms.
Pension on divorcePODE reports, SIPP and final-salary sharing orders, offsetting where appropriate.
Post-Standish 2025Live matrimonialisation arguments on pre-marital and inherited interests.

5.0 ★★★★★

62 reviews on ReviewSolicitors

Every review counted here is verified against a real matter. The average has held at 5.0 across more than sixty cases because boutique work is small-batch, and small-batch work earns its average one client at a time.

Book a free first call

Book a free, confidential call

The first call costs nothing. Nothing is on the clock until scope and fees are agreed in writing.

Tell us the broad shape of the matter and a couple of times that suit. Claire or one of the associates will call back within one working day, by phone or by video, whichever you prefer.

If your situation is sensitive, leave only the time slots and we will reply by phone with no detail in writing until you choose otherwise.

Prefer to talk now? 01482 762698

Thank you. The booking request has reached the office. We will be in touch within one working day on the contact you gave us.

Visit

Hodgson House, Flemingate.

The office is in the Victorian core of the old Hodgson tannery, restored as part of the Flemingate development. We are five minutes walk from Beverley railway station and there is a 500-space multi-storey car park at the Flemingate centre itself.

Beverley Minster is a one-minute walk across the road, if you want to combine the meeting with a quiet half hour beforehand.

Monday09:00 to 17:30
Tuesday09:00 to 17:30
Wednesday09:00 to 17:30
Thursday09:00 to 17:30
Friday09:00 to 17:30
SaturdayBy appointment
SundayClosed

Hodgson House, 21 Flemingate, Beverley HU17 0NP. Five minutes from Beverley station, opposite the Minster. Open in Google Maps ↗

Common questions

What people most often ask before the first call.

Is the first call really free, and how confidential is it?

Yes. The first call is a no-obligation confidential conversation with Claire or one of the associates, booked at a time that suits you, including out of office hours where the work or the situation needs it. Nothing is on the clock until we have agreed scope and fees in writing. Nothing said in that call leaves the firm.

My partner owns the business, or the farm. What actually happens to it in a divorce?

A single joint expert (an SJE accountant or land agent) values the business or farm at a date agreed between the parties. That value enters the matrimonial pot. The sharing principle is the starting point: a 50/50 split of matrimonial property. But pre-marital interests, inherited stakes and ring-fenced assets are argued out separately, and post-Standish v Standish (Supreme Court, 2025) the "matrimonialisation" question is now live on almost every farm and family-business case. Specialist work, not generalist work.

We signed a pre-nup before we married. Is it actually binding in England?

England and Wales do not automatically enforce pre-nuptial agreements, but since Radmacher v Granatino (Supreme Court, 2010) the court will give a properly executed pre-nup decisive weight provided each party had independent legal advice, full disclosure, and the agreement is fair in light of any children. We draft pre-nups to hit those tests, and we review pre-nups drafted elsewhere to tell you honestly where they will and will not hold.

How do we agree child arrangements without going to court?

Most parents who can communicate write a parenting plan together, sometimes with mediation help, and seal it as a consent order if both want the additional certainty. We help draft the plan, the order, and the holiday contact schedule. Court is the backstop for when one party will not engage, when there are safeguarding concerns, or when a relocation outside the jurisdiction is on the table.

What does a Kingston Family Law matter actually cost, end to end?

For straightforward agreed-form divorces and consent orders we work on fixed fees agreed in writing at the first meeting. For Form E disclosure and complex financial settlements we work on hourly rates with a written estimate, updated at every stage. We will tell you, in the first meeting, the most likely band the matter will fall into and the points at which the cost can escalate. No surprises on the invoice is a firm rule, not a marketing line.