Charlotte Quain joined Blythe Liggins in June 2025 to support the firm’s thriving Family department. After qualifying in 2009 into the family law department of a national law firm in Birmingham, she has since worked in a Legal 500 leading firm specialising in family law. She has gained broad experience dealing with privately funded family law matters arising from the breakdown of marriage and cohabiting relationships. She is particularly experienced in dealing with resolution of financial matters following divorce in high-net-worth cases.
What was your career path to your current role?
I gained a BA Hons in Economic and Social History and Politics at the University of York. Following a stint in London working in public relations, I returned to education and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice at the College of Law in Birmingham. I completed my training contract with a national law firm in Birmingham city centre and qualified into the family law department.
I moved with the family law team to another Birmingham city centre firm then joined a Legal 500 leading firm which specialises in family law, where I gained further experience, with particular focus on acting for clients of high net worth in financial resolution matters following divorce. Having taken time out of my career to care for family, I joined the family team at Blythe Liggins in June 2025.
Did you have any other career ambitions?
When my late mother asked me as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up I answered, “a little girl’s mummy”. I got my wish at the age of 40. Prior to that, I would say I didn’t quite understand the struggle parents face in juggling a career and responsibility for parenting, particularly if they are not lucky enough to have a support network to provide help at short notice. Individuals and their careers are put under pressure with ‘a thousand cuts’, most of which are invisible.
The administration involved in arranging childcare is a job in itself. I am so thankful for the ruling in White v White [2001] UKHL 54 which firmly establishes that there is no place for discrimination between the work of taking care of the children and home and the work of the breadwinner – although I sometimes see evidence of a deeply rooted and perhaps unconscious discrimination surfacing. I am also grateful for the concept of ‘relationship-generated disadvantage’ in terms of career progression and earning capacity.
What keeps you motivated in your work?
I enjoy helping clients to have a voice and putting right an injustice. It is very rewarding finding a way to achieve the outcome/s the client is seeking. Where a client has been dominated by a strong-willed partner and told how things should be according to their partner’s view, it is refreshing to apply the law to achieve fairness and equality. It can often be a stressful journey, however.
What has been the best development in family law in the last 20 years?
The fact that steps are at last being taken towards strengthening the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples with the most recent development being publication of the open consultation, A fairer end to relationships: consultation document on 5 June 2026, although in my opinion the proposals do not go far enough.
I also welcomed the introduction of no-fault divorce as it was long overdue. The idea that you had to prove your reasons for the marriage breaking down irretrievably to the court’s satisfaction by, for example, producing a list of examples of unreasonable behaviour was in my opinion intrusive, unnecessary and obviously inflammatory.
And the worst?
The legislative changes which removed legal aid for family law subject to a few exceptions. Not only does this mean that often those most in need cannot obtain access to justice but it has also resulted in the rise of the litigant in person, which puts the courts and solicitors under even more pressure than they already were.
If you could bring in one new piece of legislation for the sector, what would it be and why?
I would introduce legislation which entitles cohabitees access to the same legal rights as married couples have on divorce. There should be the same access to financial relief for cohabiting individuals who are the caregivers and homemakers, and as such are financially disadvantaged, as there are for married individuals.
What’s the best piece of advice anyone ever gave you regarding your career?
I don’t really recall ever receiving any career advice. I think I am self-made by hard work and a forward trajectory and trying not to be absolutely floored if something goes wrong!
What advice would you like to give to someone just starting out?
Family law is not for the faint hearted. It can be a rollercoaster, but it can also be rewarding and you can make a positive difference in someone’s life. It helps to be resilient by nature. As with most things in life, you will get out what you put in.
Tell us something people may be surprised to know about you…
I once travelled 5,000 miles across the USA in a greyhound bus following a stint working in a summer camp in the Catskill Mountains in New York state (during a university summer vacation). I travelled with three other girls with our backpacks in the days before mobile phones. The greyhound stations were often in the downtown areas. I recall one incident in downtown Santa Cruz where a police car stopped and told us to get in. I recall climbing into the back seat next to a huge rifle. The police officer asked us if we knew we were in the middle of gangland, and drove us to somewhere safer. We were invincible in those days and thankfully, survived to tell the tale.
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