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Pauline is a founding partner of Hughes Fowler Carruthers. She is a well-known and highly respected family lawyer.

Pauline has worked with Frances Hughes since 1985, first at Bates, Wells & Braithwaite (where she was a partner from 1990) and now at Hughes Fowler Carruthers.

As well as specialising in complex divorce and children’s work, Pauline also specialises in international adoption and surrogacy. She is a highly regarded senior mediator, well known for her work in this area. She is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, a member of The Pensions Advisory Group and of Resolution, chairing Resolution’s Pensions, Tax and Financial Remedies Committee. She is a regular broadcaster and writer on family law matters.

Pauline is consistently recognised as a leading individual in the Chambers UK guide. The Chambers UK 2021 Guide notes that she “tackles a wide array of complex family law issues” and that it was said of her “You know the case will be done properly and there will be no messing around”. Chambers UK 2020 described her as “particularly noted for her representation of high net worth clients in divorce proceedings involving substantial cross-border assets”. She is also featured in the Spear’s Family Law Index’s ‘Recommended Family Lawyers’ list.

Pauline retains her Band 1 ranking in Chambers HNW 2021 and is described as a “phenomenally bright, clever lawyer. She is very client focused and always has good judgement”. The guide further praises Pauline for being “very effective in mediation”. Chambers HNW 2020 reconfirms Pauline’s Band 1 ranking and describes her as “well versed in dealing with high net worth clients on a range of family matters, including divorce, children, adoption and surrogacy”. The guide further states Pauline runs a “varied practice” and is “fabulous, so clever, fantastically good”.

Chambers HNW 2019 ranked Pauline in Band 1 once again and celebrated her as a “high net worth family law specialist and mediator”. The guide also noted that Pauline “enjoys a fine reputation for her focused practice in children law, divorce and adoption and surrogacy cases” and “does the cases extremely well”. Retaining her Band 1 ranking, Pauline was described in Chambers UK 2019 as a “steely” and “brilliant” lawyer who “puts her clients’ case forward sensibly but robustly”.

The Legal 500 UK 2021 describes Pauline as “highly respected” and reconfirms her ranking in ‘The Legal 500 Hall of Fame’. The guide praises her as a “formidable yet personable”, “brilliant solicitor”whose “insight is second to none”. The Legal 500 UK 2020 inducts Pauline into their Hall of Fame and reconfirms her position as a ‘Leading Individual’ in both family law and family law: mediation. The Guide further describes her as “highly regarded”.