My friend Katherine Gieve, who has died aged 74 of lymphoma, was a solicitor who specialised in family justice and children’s law. Her calm, compassionate empathy with her clients, combined with great legal skill and professionalism, propelled her to become one of the UK’s top family lawyers.
Voted the industry’s family law partner of the year in 2012, she was one of the country’s leading legal advocates for children in particularly difficult cases, including in the landmark conjoined twin case in 2000. Failure to separate the twins, Jodie and Mary, would have meant the death of both – but separation would kill the weaker one, a course of action that their parents felt unable to authorise. After a three-month legal battle the operation took place, saving the life of the stronger twin, Jodie, whom Katherine had been chosen to represent.
Active in the women’s liberation movement in the 1970s, Katherine had decided to become a lawyer to improve the way vulnerable women and mothers were treated in the family courts – her activism was always practical.
In her 20s in the mid-70s, she was one of a group of feminist legal workers, Rights of Women, who campaigned for women’s financial and legal independence. It seems impossible now, but a woman applying to become a solicitor then was still asked at interview whether her husband approved.
Later in life she continued to write on feminist topics, including in her book Balancing Acts: Being a Mother (1989) and The Cohabitation Handbook (1981), which she co-authored with Anne Bottomley, Gay Moon and Angela Weir.
Born in Oxford, Katherine was the daughter of Charles Vereker, a politics professor, and Patricia (nee Kastelian), a teacher. The family moved first to Liverpool, where Katherine attended Merchant Taylors’ girls’ school, and, in her final year of school, to Durham, for her parents’ work. From there, Katherine went to St Anne’s College, Oxford, to study philosophy, politics and economics. She met John Gieve, whom she married in 1972, a year after graduation.
She did her law exams at the College of Law (now University of Law) in central London, and articles with Wegg-Prosser and Farmer in Paddington, qualifying in 1978. She then began her career at West Hampstead Community Law Centre, advising on housing and family law, leaving after five years for Wilford McBain, solicitors specialising in children’s cases. In 1985 she joined the Family Rights Group, advising courts, social workers, families and lawyers on all aspects of children’s welfare.
In 1988 she joined the London-based law firm Bindmans, remaining there until her retirement in 2014 as chair of the partnership. After retirement she divided her time between Highbury, north London, and a cottage in Iken, Suffolk.
In addition to her court work, Katherine also served on many committees and advisory boards, including for the Law Society, the Nuffield Foundation, the Solicitors Family Law Association (now Resolution) and the Family Justice Council, and was a trustee of Pause, which supports women whose children are taken into care.
She is survived by John, their sons, Daniel and Matthew, and five grandchildren, and her sister, Deirdre.
