Frances is senior partner of Hughes Fowler Carruthers. She is a very senior and highly respected family lawyer, a former Governor at Large of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and former Vice President of the European Chapter of the International Academy of Family Lawyers.
Frances specialises in family law work, including divorce and complex children’s cases. She is also a senior mediator. Frances has been a starred lawyer in the Chambers directory and a leading lawyer in the Legal 500 for many years.
Frances is also listed in Tatler Address Book’s Advisory as founding partner and one of the leading family lawyers in their trusted network of influential and elite private client experts with “gilt-edged” expertise. She is additionally featured in Spear’s Family Law Index’s ‘Top Flight Family Lawyers’ list, where she is described as one of the “Queen Bees” in the industry and a “powerhouse of the family law world” and in Citywealth’s Leaders List of Top 10 Family & Matrimonial Lawyers.
She has been a member of Resolution (formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association) since its inception. Frances regularly writes and broadcasts on family law issues nationally and internationally. She is a member of The Times law panel and has had an entry in Who’s Who for many years.
Frances is consistently recognised by The Legal 500 and Chambers as a leading family lawyer. Chambers UK 2024 reconfirms Frances’ ranking as a ‘Star Individual’, with one source commenting “in my view, Frances is the best solicitor doing this area of lawyer – a complete star.” The guide further notes that “Frances is a master tactician. What is consistent about her is that she can win a case that no one else can, because from the get-go she has a strategic vision of where the case will go.” Another source enthuses that she “knows everything and has fantastic experience and judgement.”
Chambers HNW 2024 describes Frances as “formidable, with extraordinary judgement.” She is a “determined litigator” with “uncanny skill in knowing what is the right time to settle and at what amount,” highlights a second source. Another enthuses that she “deserves her reputation as one of the very finest lawyers in the country. She is a ferocious advocate in defence of her clients and will never give up.”
Chambers UK 2023 commends Frances as “tactically brilliant”, stating that she “can always see five steps ahead.” A Chambers source comments “her dealing with clients is unsurpassed. She just handles them extremely well,” while another praises her for being “fearless, tenacious and not afraid to take on cases which, at first, appear to be against her because she can spot angles that others won’t see.”
The Legal 500 UK 2024 reconfirms Frances’ ranking in ‘The Legal 500 Hall of Fame’, describing her as the “go-to solicitor for complex financial disputes,” with a source enthusing that “she knows how to win.” The guide further notes that she is the “pre-eminent practitioner” in family law. The Legal 500 UK 2022 comments that she “has rightly bestrode the family law world like a colossus”. The directory further notes she “achieves unlikely outcomes by pure force of personality when required” and is “the most tactically astute mind in planning and executing a case, and loved by clients who feel utterly protected, and never led down the garden path”. Frances is also praised for having a “stellar reputation” which is entirely deserved and second to none and it is highlighted “she has achieved countless victories against the odds. She has an extraordinary drive and will to win which brings success where others would look to cut her their losses”.
Frances has a keen interest in the arts, is a musician and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Frances studied English at Oxford University before qualifying as a solicitor in 1981. She set up the family law department at Bates, Wells & Braithwaite in the City in 1983.
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