Personal bio
Gavin Smith has three decades’ experience as a specialist family law barrister, dealing with all types of financial remedy proceedings following relationship breakdown. Gavin now focusses full time on his established practice as an arbitrator and private FDR evaluator. He is described by Chambers and Partners as ‘well regarded for his well-established arbitration practice.’ In DB v DLJ [2016] EWHC 324 (Fam), Mr Justice Mostyn described Gavin’s arbitration award as ‘a thorough, conscientious and clear piece of work. Its quality is a testament to the merit of opting for arbitration.’ Gavin is available to undertake arbitrations of all kinds, from single issue disputes to those involving the full range of financial remedy claims, and from high value cases to ones where the parties’ resources are modest. He is also an experienced private FDR evaluator, assisting couples on separation by giving them an assessment of the likely outcome in their case, and thus providing them with a basis for a negotiated settlement. Gavin sits as a Deputy District Judge in the Financial Remedies Court on the Midland Circuit, where he has been authorised to hear the more complex cases. He keeps up to date with legal change by co-editing the financial practitioners’ ‘bibles’, At A Glance and At A Glance Cloud. He is one of the founding authors of Financial Remedies Practice, published annually, and co-founded the award-winning website FamilyArbitrator.com. He has an excellent working knowledge of French and some German. Details of Gavin’s availability and fees for arbitrations and private FDRs may be obtained from his clerks at clerks@1hc.com.