Overview
Stewart specialises in ancillary relief, civil partnership and cohabitee disputes as well as Inheritance Act claims. His cases involve significant wealth and complex financial arrangements, often with an international dimension and/or involving tricky jurisdictional disputes. He is bilingual in French and English and has a particular interest in cross-channel cases. He is regularly instructed by corporate clients and trustees both to advise and to represent them in proceedings. He also routinely drafts pre- and post-nuptial agreements, again often involving multiple jurisdictions.
Expertise
Stewart is consistently rated in Chambers & Partners, Legal Experts, and the Legal 500 in the top tier of leading silks at the family bar. Recent editions of Chambers & Partners quote solicitors as saying he is “very clever, very calm, fantastic with clients and good with judges”. He is also praised for “his expertly prepared addresses”, being described as “excellent”, a “fierce advocate” who “continues to amass a huge following among solicitors due to his superb judgment.” He is “an extremely hard-working, elegant and intelligent advocate” with “superb client care skills”; “he has a real ability to cut to the core of the issues and to present complex arguments in an accessible way.”
Stewart is a very popular choice of tribunal for private judging for financial cases of all levels. He regularly conducts private FDRs and is a qualified arbitrator. He prides himself on being approachable and user-friendly.
Stewart is a notable contributor to legal publications and a specialist contributing editor (family law) to Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law (3rd edition). He is also speaks at lectures and seminars on a regular basis.
