WHAT WE HAVE HANDLED
Cross-border family litigation across Spain, USA, UK, Switzerland and Luxembourg
An international family crisis does not put the rest of life on hold. Businesses still need to be run, clients still have to work, children continue with their routines, properties need to be managed, travel plans remain in place, financial decisions cannot always wait, and lawyers in different countries are working with procedures and timelines that do not necessarily align.
We acted in an international family matter where managing that complexity was a central part of the work.
The challenge was not simply determining which courts might have jurisdiction or which law might apply. It was managing, at the same time, legal deadlines, personal expectations, the professional lives of those involved and a financial position spread across several jurisdictions.
Each decision had consequences beyond the proceedings themselves.
A court appearance could interfere with an important professional commitment. A change of residence could alter the legal analysis. A decision concerning a property could have financial consequences in another country.And a step taken by a lawyer in one jurisdiction had to remain consistent with the strategy being developed elsewhere.
There was also another difficult element to manage: expectations.
In highly personal situations, clients understandably want immediate answers. International family law, however, rarely moves at the speed they would like. Part of our role was to distinguish what was genuinely urgent from what was simply pressing, avoid unnecessary reactions and explain which decisions needed to be taken immediately and which were better left until later.
Coordination between the different lawyers was equally important. The objective was not merely to have legal advice in several countries, but to ensure that everyone was working from the same facts, towards the same objectives and within a consistent overall strategy.
At the same time, the strategy had to remain practical. It had to take into account the client’s business interests, professional commitments, properties, family responsibilities and their real ability to implement each step.
Our role was to keep all of those elements aligned.
To manage the timing, coordinate the different advisers, anticipate how one decision could affect another jurisdiction and build a strategy that was legally robust, but also workable in the client’s real life.
Because in the most complex international family matters, finding the right legal answer is only part of the job.
The real challenge is making it work in the real world.
Making Spain work for you.
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