Bethan Hill-Howells

Bethan advises on complex financial remedy proceedings, including divorce, civil partnership dissolution, Schedule 1, and TOLATA claims.

• Advised a client in contentious financial remedy proceedings and attended a private Financial Dispute Resolution (FDR) hearing. Assisted the client in obtaining a 91% split of the assets, to include capitalised maintenance, a pension sharing order as well as an interest in the other party’s investment portfolios and shares.
• Successfully obtained orders in a client’s favour following repeated non-disclosure issues of the other party This resulted in a large, lucrative business asset being identified (which was previously hidden) and forming part of the overall matrimonial pot, with valuable shares and investment funds being awarded to the client.
• Advised and successfully ran arguments of conduct of the other party, which resulted in a costs order being made in the client’s favour, as well as a larger split of the assets.
• Advised in complex financial remedy proceedings which included the client’s family members being added to proceedings as “intervenors” relating to their interest in a number of family-owned properties.
• Advised on complex trust and business structures which were based in a number of different international jurisdictions, to include Italy, America, and the UAE, and successfully reached a financial settlement away from contentious proceedings.
• Advised and undertook a round-table meeting providing the client with the majority share of the assets with a 63% split in her favour. The client had made no financial contribution during the marriage.
• Successfully assisted the client to obtain a large pension share of the other party’s redundancy package and pension, despite the parties being separated for over 10 years.
• Advised on complex financial remedy proceedings which included a large property portfolio and estate agent businesses as well as international-based assets in Dubai and UAE.
• Regularly advises clients who have farming and land businesses, as well as large property portfolios.

Bethan represents parents in sensitive and complex Children Act proceedings, including international disputes, child arrangements, and fact-finding hearings.

• Successfully appealed an order made within private Children Act proceedings which resulted in the matter being heard by the Royal Courts of Justice. The application was successful on the ground of errors made by the first Judge and a costs order was made against the other party.
• Successfully advised and obtained serious findings of fact against the father which included findings of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of the mother, as well as psychological and emotional abuse of the parties’ child. This resulted in the father having supervised contact (at a contact centre) to ensure the child’s welfare.
• Successfully obtained a specific issue order granting the mother’s application to change the child’s school. The child had been forced to travel over 1.5 hours to and from school, as a result of the father refusing to provide consent to move schools. The court determined that mother’s application was child-focussed and granted the change of schools to be implemented immediately.
• Successfully obtained an urgent, without notice prohibited steps order on behalf of the father preventing the mother from removing the child from his care, as a result of the mother’s ongoing alcohol and drug dependency concerns.
• Advised the father on a complex private Children Act proceedings where there were concerns for both mother and father’s mental health. Assisted the client successfully arguing that a Part 25 Psychological Assessment was required of both parties, as well as joining the child to proceedings with a Guardian appointed under Rule 16.4. Successfully obtained contact for the father when at the outset, mother refused to allow contact.
• Successfully defended a child arrangements order application made by the mother to prevent the father from having any unsupervised contact with the parties’ child, with mother making a number of serious allegations against the father. The court determined that the mother’s allegations were without merit and granted the father unsupervised contact, as sought.
• Advised a mother in making an application to the court to relocate her young child back to India.
• Advised parents in making applications to relocate to a foreign jurisdiction, including Europe, USA, and the UAE.
• Successfully advised a mother in making an application to vary the previous consent order as a result of very serious concerns against father regarding sexual abuse, and mental health diagnoses that were not being managed by the father.
• Successfully obtained a section 91(14) barring order on behalf of the mother (against the father) to prevent him from making any further applications to the court without first obtaining permission from the court.
• Advised a father to make an urgent application for a prohibited steps order to prevent the mother from travelling to Russia with their child. Both the mother and child had Russian passports and so the concern was very high.
• Advised the mother to make an urgent application to enforce a child arrangements order as a result of the father withholding the child for over a week. Both parties had made urgent applications and the judge found in favour of the mother’s arguments and the child was successfully returned to her immediately.
• Regularly instructs experts on matters to assist the court, including independent social workers (“ISWs”), domestic abuse experts as well as psychologists and obtaining police disclosure.
• Regularly deals with matters which include children who have additional needs (including ASD and ADHD diagnoses, as well as other health issues) and the impact of their needs on welfare and contact arrangements.
• Successfully appealed an order made by a judge to dismiss an application for a finding of fact hearing. During the appeal, the appeal judge identified that the previous judge should not have dismissed the application, and our client’s application for this hearing was successfully reinstated.

Bethan regularly advises clients and makes urgent applications to the court for both non-molestation and occupation orders.

• Successfully obtained an urgent without-notice non-molestation and occupation order on behalf of the wife, removing the husband from the family home as a result of serious and ongoing domestic abuse incidents, which included police involvement.
• Advised and successfully defended an application made by the wife for a non-molestation and occupation order application. It was found that the wife had fabricated allegations against the husband in order to attempt to obtain a tactical advantage in the financial remedy proceedings. The applications were dismissed in their totality.
• Successfully advised and assisted the wife in obtaining orders which included a zonal order preventing the husband from being within a certain radius of the family home and the children’s school. These orders remained in place for 12 months.
• Successfully obtained an urgent non-molestation order against the wife who was sending the husband numerous threatening text messages, voicemails, and social media messages.

Bethan advises on prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, including pre- and post-civil partnership agreements).

• Advised and acted on behalf of the wife-to-be who had a number of pre-matrimonial assets to include a property portfolio and profitable business which were based in a number of different jurisdictions.
• Advised and acted on behalf of the husband-to-be who had built up a large amount of wealth prior to marriage. This included inheritance, savings, and properties that needed to be ringfenced.
• Advised and acted on behalf of the husband-to-be in relation to a post-nuptial agreement which included a number of investment and shares portfolios, as well as a large bonus and pension scheme.
• Advised and acted on behalf of a partner in a pre-civil partnership. This included the division of funds due to both parties being independently wealthy prior to the partnership.

Recognised by Chambers UK for Family: Matrimonial 2027

Recognised by The Legal 500 for Family 2025-2027

Recognised by The Legal 500 for Family: Mediation 2026

Member of Resolution