Major Family Law has been nominated for two awards in the prestigious national LexisNexis Family Law Awards 2023.
The boutique law firm is a contender for:
- Family Law Firm of the Year – North
- Family Law Innovation of the Year for Splittingup.com
Splittingup.com is a rich web resource for separating and divorcing couples, carefully designed to provide practical, emotionally intelligent and legally accurate information.
It was launched in autumn 2022 by Joanne Major, the award-winning founder of the firm. Major Family Law is a top-tier specialist family law firm based in Ponteland near Newcastle, operating across the North of England.
Now in their 12th year, the LexisNexis Family Law Awards honour the important work of family lawyers, celebrating excellence, success and achievement across the sector.
Each year, a shortlist of finalists is selected by a judging panel made up of the heads of the Family Law Bar Association, Resolution, the Association of Lawyers for Children and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, along with Family Law editors and publishing professionals.
Joanne Major said:
“These are national family law awards and therefore being a finalist in two separate categories is quite an achievement for the firm.”
Major Family Law will be celebrating its 15th year in business in January. The firm was founded on Joanne Major’s kitchen table, and in the decade and a half since has become the largest niche family law practice in the Northeast, the regional leader in private family law work. The firm now has a staff of 30, of whom 17 are specialist lawyers.
Joanne explained:
“We have come to be regarded as the “go-to” family law firm of choice, thanks to our continual focus on quality, client service, community engagement and innovation. To promote access to justice for the less well-off, we offer free 45-minute consultations with a member of our legal team because we recognize that sometimes people need legal advice without having the funds to pay for it. In addition, we offer a low-cost fixed fee for the divorce process itself, at just £150 plus VAT and court fees.”
Major Family Law is an active supporter of charities with a local presence. The firm has raised no less than £36,781 for the Brain Tumour Charity since it was established and recently extended its support to Newcastle-based homeless charity The People’s Kitchen. Members of the Major Family Law team had a great time working together in an “Apprentice” style challenge, raising a very respectable £5,430 for the charity.
Joanne Major launched online information portal www.splittingup.com in 2022 to guide readers through the pitfalls of separation and divorce or dissolution. The free-to-use site details everything someone might need to know, and who to turn to. Visitors are directed to experts as well as the firm’s lawyers, via an extensive and easy to search directory of professionals. Featured services include relationship counselling, mediation, family law, independent financial advisers and experts in estate planning.
The site also hosts an innovative podcast called Splitting Up Dot Pod. In each episode, real stories and situations are analysed by a range of national family law experts, in order to help listeners who may be going through similar situations.
This year’s LexisNexis Family Law Awards will be held on Monday 27 November 2023 at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge hotel, in London SE1.