Jane Tenquist

Biography

With over 32 years’ experience in family law, Jane Tenquist is listed as a Leading Individual in the North-West by the Legal 500 Directory.

Jane Tenquist is a Partner and Head of the Family Team at Myerson.  She specialises in complex financial work and has enjoyed particular success in tracing hidden assets and acting in cases involving trust issues, inherited wealth and complex business issues.

Jane also has a huge amount of experience in negotiation and drafting pre and post nuptial agreements, often involving foreign jurisdictions. She is an excellent strategist and remains dedicated to protecting the best interests of her clients.

Jane is an active member of Resolution and is known for her constructive, pragmatic advice, her down to earth approach, and her technical excellence.  Jane  is a firm believer in focusing on the main issues, providing sound advice, and is an excellent communicator.

The Legal 500 Directory and clients have described her as highly intelligent, personable, accessible and someone who you want on your side rather than working against you. Her clients says that she achieves beyond their expectations, whilst remaining calm and determined.

Expertise and Past Cases

Jane has acted for numerous business owners, entrepreneurs, people in the media, professionals and their spouses. Her notable cases include:

Acting for a Husband in negotiating and drafting a Mirror Pre-Nuptial Agreement where the assets amounted to £55M and were located in England & overseas. Jane then subsequently negotiated a Mirror Post Nuptial Agreement.

Acting for a Wife in contested financial remedy proceedings where the assets amounted to £23M. The Husband acted as a litigant in person and attempted to transfer the net proceeds of sale of land amounting to several million to his sole bank account in an attempt to frustrate the Wife’s financial remedy claim. Jane was successful in obtaining an urgent freezing order injunction against the Husband. Jane also worked closely with Andrew Chapman in the Commercial Property Team to locate undisclosed property in the Husband’s sole name and was able to secure an advantageous settlement at final hearing for the Wife due to the Husband’s misconduct in failing to provide full and frank disclosure of his assets.

Acting for the Husband who was a Company Director and 50% shareholder in a company with his Wife. The assets of the marriage amounted to circa £4M. The COVID pandemic had adversely affected the value of the parties’ company. The case concluded after a three-day final hearing based on the proposals Jane had put forward prior to trial. The Wife had to transfer her interest in the Company to the Husband in return for a substantially reduced maintenance order. The Husband was also able to secure a percentage of the net proceeds of sale of the family home.

Acting for a London Banker in relation to contested financial remedy proceedings in the Central Family Court. There was a significant dispute between the parties over three properties in London, one of which was owned in the sole name of the Husband but was occupied by his parents. The parents applied to intervene within the proceedings which concluded at FDR hearing. The Husband secured a clean break order upon the basis that he retained the family home and the property occupied by his parents. The Husband also secured an equal shared care arrangement of the children with their mother.

Acting for an unmarried Father in relation to contested Private Children Act proceedings and contested Schedule 1 Children Act proceedings. After the mother initially obstructed the father from seeing the baby, the father was successful in securing an order to spend time with the child at weekends and in the holidays. Jane then negotiated a financial settlement on behalf of the Father which involved funding a property for the child during the child’s minority.

Acting for a Company Director in relation to a variation application to terminate a spousal maintenance order. Jane was successful in negotiating a termination of payments. The client was extremely happy to achieve this result after previous attempts to resolve matters had failed.

Acting for a Wife in relation to contested financial remedy proceedings and contested Children Act proceedings. The Husband was a successful Company Director, shareholder and entrepreneur. He was also a beneficiary under a substantial Family Trust which had supported the parties’ lifestyle during the marriage. The Husband had been able to purchase a large country property with extensive land attached pursuant to a loan advanced by the Trust. Jane was successful in obtaining an order for maintenance pending suit and a legal services provision order pending conclusion of the proceedings. Jane was also successful in arguing that the Husband’s assets owned by the company should be valued ahead of the company valuation. The Wife secured an order that she receive 70% of the net proceeds of sale of the family home together with a generous spousal maintenance order, child maintenance order and school fees order. The Husband also sought an equal shared care order in contested Children Act proceedings. The Wife was able to secure a live with order in her favour and an order which meant the child remained living with her most of the time.

Jane acted for Manchester Fertility Clinic in Cases C,D & E in the reported case of In the Matter of HFEA 2008 ( Cases A,B,C,D,E,F,G & H Declaration of Parentage) [2015] EWHC 2602 (Fam)  before Sir James Mumby President of the Family Division in the High Court in London. Several applications for declarations of parentage had been made where children had been born following donor insemination but statutory consent requirements had not been complied with as a result of administrative failures by the relevant clinic. Declarations were granted.