The Manely Firm in London

In June 2024, The Manely Firm, P.C. opened its first office outside the United States. We chose London. Today, our England and Wales practice, The Manely Firm UK LLP, works alongside our six Georgia offices, so a family or a firm with a matter touching both countries works with one team rather than two that have never spoken.

Key Takeaways:

• The Manely Firm UK LLP serves clients in England and Wales as part of the same network as The Manely Firm, P.C. in Georgia.
• Michael E. Manely is owner and partner of both practices, and the only all-family-law attorney to win unanimous decisions before the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Georgia.
• Solicitors in London and attorneys in Georgia work the same file, at the same time, under one strategy.

Why London

For more than three decades, our cases had been going to London. Children taken from Georgia to the United Kingdom. British spouses served in Atlanta. We were a Georgia firm doing international work, calling foreign counsel we did not choose and could not direct.

Michael Manely has described the goal plainly: to stop being a Georgia firm that handles international law and become an international firm headquartered in Georgia. London sits at the center of the transatlantic community our Georgia offices have served for years, which made it the logical first step.

Contact The Manely Firm, P.C. today to request your free Case Evaluation,

Two Jurisdictions, One Team

The Manely Firm, P.C. is a Georgia practice, with attorneys licensed in Georgia who appear in Georgia courts. The Manely Firm UK LLP serves clients in England and Wales, led by Partner Michelle Lubelle and Senior Associate Navdip Kaur Dhariwal, both solicitors handling complex financial and children matters.

Michael Manely is owner and partner of both. That common ownership is not a detail for the footer. It means one strategy governs both sides of your matter, and no one is protecting a referral relationship instead of your position. When a case has an English arm and a Georgia arm, we do not hand you off. We staff both.

The First Decision Is Where, Not What

In a matter touching two countries, the most consequential decision is usually made before anyone argues the merits: which country hears the case. That decision changes outcomes, and it is frequently settled by who moves first. Since the United Kingdom left the European Union, the older automatic rules governing competing UK and EU proceedings no longer apply the same way, which has made forum strategy more open and more contested than it was a decade ago.

Our international family law team assesses habitual residence, domicile, where children have their settled life, where assets sit, and which court will realistically enforce what it orders. Then we move.

How England and Wales Differ from Georgia

Property and finances. Georgia divides marital property by equitable distribution, a fair division that is not automatically an equal one. Courts in England and Wales weigh the needs of each party and the children alongside a principle of sharing, with broad judicial discretion. Our divorce attorneys and our London solicitors model both before a filing decision is made.

Support after separation. Georgia alimony and English spousal maintenance are not interchangeable. Duration, the appetite for a clean break, and the treatment of earning capacity all differ.

Children. Courts in England and Wales apply the welfare principle under the Children Act 1989. Georgia applies the best interest of the child standard. Child arrangement orders and Georgia parenting plans are not the same instrument, so our child custody attorneys draft with an eye to how an order reads on the other side of the Atlantic.

Nuptial agreements. In England and Wales, a prenuptial agreement is not automatically binding, though courts give it real weight when it was entered into freely and fairly. In Georgia, a properly executed agreement is generally enforceable. Couples with property in both countries need a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement drafted against both standards at once.

Enforcement and service. Obtaining an order is one problem. Having it respected in another country is a second. Service abroad, recognition, and enforcement each carry their own requirements, and each is where cases stall under counsel unfamiliar with the receiving court.

What We Handle Across the Atlantic

• International divorce and financial remedy proceedings
• Jurisdiction and forum disputes between the United States and England and Wales
• Hague Convention child abduction cases, both return applications and defenses
• Relocation of children between the United Kingdom and the United States
• Recognition and enforcement of foreign orders, and service of process abroad
• International prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
• Custody matters involving dual-national children and competing passports

For parents facing the hardest version of this, our attorneys have written about cases beyond Hague reach, where no treaty framework applies.

Families on Both Sides

British and dual-national families across Georgia work with us from our offices in Marietta, Atlanta, Lawrenceville, Cumming, Columbus, and Savannah.

If you are American and living in England or Wales, the mirror problem applies. English proceedings reach your United States assets in ways you may not anticipate, and American institutions respond to English orders in ways your solicitor may not predict alone. The Manely Firm UK LLP handles your matter there, with United States counsel within the same firm.

For Solicitors and Referring Firms

We work regularly with firms across England and Wales that have a family matter with an American element and with United States firms whose clients have a life in the United Kingdom. We can advise on United States jurisdiction and enforcement before you file, take the American arm while you retain the English one, or coordinate service, discovery, and enforcement across both systems without a third party in the chain.

We are not a family law firm that occasionally takes an international case. Family law is the only thing we do, and we do it in both countries.

Start the Conversation

The Manely Firm, P.C. has practiced family law in Georgia for more than 30 years and serves clients in ten languages in addition to English. If your family, your assets, or your children exist in two countries, you need counsel who exist in both. Contact The Manely Firm, P.C. today to request your free Case Evaluation, and we will tell you plainly what each jurisdiction is likely to do before you commit to either one.