Caroline East

Caroline advises high-net-worth and international clients on complex financial remedy matters involving trusts, inherited wealth, business interests, pre- and post-marital assets, and cross-border issues.

• Advised an Italian investment banker in relation to his wife’s financial remedy claims, including the ring-fencing of pre-marital wealth and prospective carried interest.
• Acted for the English wife of a Swiss-based international businessman where the matrimonial assets were situated across multiple jurisdictions and held within corporate trust structures.
• Acted for a high-net-worth English husband in financial remedy proceedings involving significant trust assets, inherited wealth, and Agricultural Holdings Act issues.
• Acted for a Canadian wife in financial remedy proceedings involving trust and inheritance issues, together with an application for maintenance pending suit, including provision for legal costs.
• Advised an English wife in financial remedy proceedings involving substantial pre-marital wealth, inherited assets, trusts, and a significant property portfolio.
• Acted for an American husband in financial remedy proceedings against his Swiss German wife involving overseas properties and investments, a substantial pension fund, and multi-million-pound art and wine collections.
• Advised a Middle Eastern heiress on a financial settlement with her husband, including a notice to show cause application to uphold the terms of a prenuptial agreement.
• Acted for individuals in financial remedy proceedings involving internationally mobile spouses working in jurisdictions including Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong, where disputes arose regarding separation dates, income, and bonus structures.
• Advised the wife of a rock star and the wife of a film director in achieving out-of-court financial settlements with their respective spouses.
• Advised a husband on a variation of maintenance application, resulting in ongoing monthly maintenance obligations being converted into a single lump sum payment.

Caroline advises on complex jurisdiction and forum disputes arising from international family breakdown, including competing divorce proceedings and cross-border financial remedy claims.

• Advised a high-net-worth American wife based in London in relation to a forum dispute following her husband’s issue of competing divorce proceedings in Switzerland.
• Advised a CEO who had initiated divorce proceedings in Ghana regarding competing proceedings subsequently issued by his wife in England.
• Advised the London-based wife of a Russian entrepreneur following her husband’s issue of competing proceedings in Russia alongside proceedings she had commenced in England.

Caroline advises on a broad range of child arrangements disputes, including residence and contact issues, international parenting arrangements, safeguarding concerns, and specific issue applications.

• Acted for a high-net-worth mother, whose husband was a senior football executive, in relation to child arrangements proceedings involving substance abuse concerns, social services and police involvement, and Gillick competence issues.
• Acted for a mother in relation to her husband’s application concerning child arrangements, including advising on a section 47 enquiry and section 17 assessment.
• Advised a mother regarding child arrangements with the children’s father, who was living and working in the Middle East.
• Represented a father in a school choice dispute concerning the parties’ daughter’s future private education.

Caroline advises on domestic and international child relocation disputes.

• Advised a husband in relation to his wife’s application to relocate internally with their two children from the East Midlands to the South West of England.
• Acted for an Italian father based in London in relation to his wife’s application for leave to remove their two children to Canada.
• Assisted a mother with her application for leave to remove the child of the family to China.

Caroline advises parents on financial provision claims for children under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989, including complex cases involving international and high-net-worth families.

• Acted for an unmarried English mother of two children in Schedule 1 Children Act 1989 proceedings against an ultra-high-net-worth Canadian father resident in Canada.
• Advised an Italian father in relation to the mother’s application for financial provision under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989.
• Assisted a young German mother with her Schedule 1 claims on behalf of her child, securing substantial financial provision from the child’s father.

Caroline advises high-net-worth and international clients on prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, helping protect personal, family, and business wealth across multiple jurisdictions.

• Advised a husband-to-be on an international prenuptial agreement designed to exclude corporate assets and future inheritance from the marital pot.
• Advised an international fashion model in relation to entering into a prenuptial agreement with her entrepreneur and CEO fiancé.
• Advised an ultra-high-net-worth Eastern European wife in relation to a postnuptial agreement where the parties’ assets were located across multiple jurisdictions.

Winner of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion of the Year (Legal Role), Women and Diversity in Law Awards 2024

Shortlisted for the Women, Influence & Power in Law UK Awards 2024 (Law.com International)

Shortlisted for the DE&I Private Practice Champion of the Year, The Legal 500 UK ESG Awards 2025

Noted by The Legal 500 2013 for her sensitivity towards clients

Member of Resolution (served 5 years on the London Region Committee)

Member of “We Can Work It Out” collaborative family law pod, a specialised group of collaborative family law professionals, financial planners, and consultants in the UK who help separating couples resolve divorce, property, and children arrangements constructively out of court

Member of the International Bar Association (IBA)

Trained collaborative lawyer

New Law Journal