Kara Swift

Kara is a Senior Associate at Family Law in Partnership. She advises on all aspects of private family law, supporting a wide range of married and unmarried clients following separation to resolve matters relating to their children, finances and property rights with diligence and care. Kara is a qualified collaborative lawyer offering her clients the opportunity to use the collaborative process to reach a solution to their family law matters.

Kara was involved in preparing the firm’s submission to the Women and Equalities Committee on the Rights of Cohabiting Couples (July 2021). In this video, Kara talks in detail about the rights and responsibilities of unmarried couples.

Kara has a particular interest in the law relating to surrogacy. She ran an awareness campaign at FLiP for National Surrogacy Week 2023 and has recorded a podcast with a barrister specialising in this field of law which can be accessed here.

The Legal 500 UK has ranked Kara as a Rising Star for family law for a number of years, including in its 2024 edition. Earlier editions note: “Kara Swift would be exceptional in whichever field of law she chose. I am particularly glad that she chose Family. I completely depended on her for calm and effective advice – in what could have been an exceptionally difficult divorce but which Kara kept on track”. The 2023 and 2024 editions of UK Best Lawyers have also named Kara as ‘One to Watch’.

Kara was named Family Law Young Solicitor of the Year 2019 in the prestigious LexisNexis Family Law Awards, having been shortlisted for the award the previous year too. Kara was also named winner in the Lawyer Monthly Magazine Women in Law Awards 2019.

Kara is a member of the Young Adviser Network where she has built strong relationships with wealth managers, international tax advisers and forensic accountants.

Kara’s recent work includes:

• Representing a client with an interest in an extensive property portfolio and associated taxation issues on their divorce.
• Advising unmarried clients on the financial claims arising from having a child.
• Representing parents who both seek to stop the other parent from moving the child abroad and parents who apply to the court for permission to move the child abroad.
• Advising on a pre-nuptial agreement to separate the beneficiary’s interest in a trust from marital assets.
• Representing the legal owner of a property in court proceedings where the former cohabitee sought to claim a beneficial interest in the property.
• Representing a client in relation to an application for a stay of the English court proceedings where the other party wanted the divorce to be dealt with in another jurisdiction.

Kara’s reported cases include Dobson v Griffey [2018] EWHC 1117 (Ch) in which she represented the defendant in his successful defence against a claim by his former partner for a share of the proceeds of sale of the property in which they had previously lived together. A detailed analysis of this case appeared in the legal publication, LexisNexis which can be found here.

Kara trained and qualified as a solicitor at Taylor Vinters before moving to Family Law in Partnership in 2016.

She is a graduate of the University of Reading (Bachelor of Laws (LLB), First Class) where she won the Boyes Turner negotiation competition and was awarded the University of Reading Family Law Prize. Kara achieved a distinction in the Legal Practice Course.

In her spare time, Kara mentors law students at the University of Reading.