Teelan & Silwal Family Law Limited

Teelan & Silwal is a cutting edge, young (6.5 years), vibrant firm, founded with the aim of providing a top class, bespoke and empathic service: since March 2016, Teelan & Silwal has gone from strength to strength, carving out for themselves a unique place in the market that is quite different to that of their peers.

HNW individuals form much of the firm’s client base, but it has consciously reserved a space for the more vulnerable clients, who could not attain the same quality of legal service elsewhere at an affordable price: the champions of the underdog, Teelan & Silwal consistently comes up against top-ranked firms, dealing with individual solicitors who specialise in UHNW cases.

When the firm rebranded in 2019, it chose a mama bear (the team) with its cub (the client) for its logo.A strong protector, Teelan & Silwal fights tenaciously, yet judiciously for its clients; the team is not unnecessarily litigious but rather always seeks a pragmatic and realistic solution where possible.

Such versatility allows the team to embrace a wide range of cases, from complex cross-jurisdictional / cross-border disputes and esoteric interlocutory applications to fraught injunction cases and, at the other extreme, pre-nuptial agreements for UHNW individuals, as well as the usual Financial Remedy cases. More specifically, the firm has handled cases involving the following in 2023: clients without capacity; issues of lis pendens in other jurisdictions; assets of more than £20m, including multi-national corporations and pre-acquired or inherited assets; the very different property laws arising upon marriage in Asian countries; Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989; claims challenged by the "remarriage bar"; Hemain Injunction proceedings and their relevance to claims under Part III of the MFPA 1984 or the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973; Pre-Nuptial Agreements, including for a client worth more than £50m; Trusts of Land issues, including between siblings and parents; and intervenor proceedings and third-party interests involving trusts structures.

The nature of Teelan & Silwal’s work on children matters is challengingly diverse and the team has developed considerable expertise in handling gritty cases involving parental alienation and abuse, as well as fast-paced, cross-jurisdictional ones. In 2023, for example, the firm has handled cases involving the following: child abduction; persuading the court to change the residence of an emotionally abused child, where Social Services declined to intervene; Leave to Remove, including safety mechanisms for non-Hague Convention countries; physical chastisement and the consequences thereof; parental alienation; and abusive relationships between parents and sometimes towards the children.

Whilst always ready to defend and protect their clients’ best interests, the team has a keen sense of the best interests of the children involved and works tirelessly (including with child Clinical Psychologists) to ensure those best interests are championed, pushing hard for mediation and other forms of dispute resolution, where appropriate.Rosalyn continues to take on a considerable number of mediation clients each year, and both she and Catherine are collaboratively trained and often conduct cases on a ‘collaborative lite’ basis.

Teelan & Silwal has a very close relationship with several highly-ranked firms, which refer clients to the team in the knowledge that individuals with the most complex needs will receive a judicious, indefatigable, and efficacious service.

In addition to the two co-founders, the team comprises (on the legal side) two solicitors, Fiona O’Connell (who is very experienced, having qualified in 2001) and Marina Pedro (who qualified in 2018), and three experienced paralegals, all three of whom are taking solicitors’ exams and conduct cases with partner supervision.Catherine and Rosalyn are keen to invest in the future of their colleagues.

Catherine and Rosalyn are proud of their firm, of each of its members, and of its excellent standard of work.They have made a conscious decision to remain small, to ensure that none of the very personal level of service is lost.