Potanina v Potanin and the lessons for the profession

Recorded shortly after the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Potanin v Potanina [2024] UKSC 3, partner at Hunters Law LLP Richard Kershaw join Today’s Family Lawyer podcast host to discuss the implications of the decision in the family law sphere.

Richard outlines the facts of case; both parties are Russian citizens who were born, lived, married and divorced in Russia until the wife obtained a UK investor visa and bought a flat in London in 2014 after the divorce. The husband has accumulated a huge amount of wealth in the 1990’s after the break of the Soviet Union as part of the wave of Oligarch’s who benefited from privatisation of state assets. Many of these were held by various trusts and companies and in the process of the divorce they were not regarded as marital assets by the Russian court and the wide ultimately ended up with a settlement that provided her with a fraction of the overall assets.

By 2017 the wife was considered habitually resident in England and in 2018 she applied for permission to seek a financial remedy under Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984.

Litigation in this matter has so far resulted in near 50 court appearances with the matter working its way through the British legal system since 2018 where it is acknowledged that there is greater favour to financially weaker parties. In a series of “will they, won’t they” rulings, leave is granted, refused (High Court), granted (Court of Appeal); with this latest judgement allowing the husband to appeal to the Supreme Court in a decision which will have an impact on future Part III of the 1984 Act and London’s reputation for “divorce tourism.”

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