Charlotte Leyshon knows a thing or two about divorce, having gone through it herself when she had a two-year-old baby. Melanie Hamer in contrast, has been happily married for some three decades..
And yet both women are Wales' leading family practice lawyers who’ve made divorce their speciality. It is being female - rather than their own life experiences - which sets them apart in their field. Marriage is not dead - despite around one in four ending in divorce - but it can be hard, boring and mundane at times, says Charlotte.
The life of a divorce lawyer on the other hand is none of those things - at least it is if you watched The Split on the BBC. But that series made Charlotte "cringe" while Melanie said it was simply unrealistic.
