Get to know Associate Director – Ryan Elliott

Ryan Elliott is a prominent matrimonial lawyer in Northern Ireland and was recently promoted to the role of Associate Director within Cleaver Fulton Rankin’s Private Client department. In this feature, Ryan discusses his role within the firm, emerging opportunities and evolving trends across the Family & Matrimonial landscape in Northern Ireland, and the career lessons that shaped his professional journey.

1. How did you come to specialise in Family Law?

I have been working in Family law for the past 14 years. The trust and rapport that I have built with clients and peers over those years is unique and has led me to specialise in this practice area.

2. How has your role evolved within the Family & Matrimonial team?

The Family & Matrimonial team is now an integral part of the Private Client department at Cleaver Fulton Rankin, and as Head of Family Law, I am proud of that accomplishment. Our clients can readily avail of the firm’s unrivalled wealth planning capabilities and this is critical for those who require expert tax/financial advice, property transactions, as well as Wills and Trusts that are tailored to their particular needs.

3. What key opportunities or challenges are you seeing in the Family & Matrimonial landscape in Northern Ireland?

Prenuptial Agreements are becoming increasingly prevalent here for a number of reasons. People are getting married later in life having focused on building their careers well into their 30’s. I am often approached by couples who are already living together, own their own house, and have started a family before marriage.

Older generations are making more lifetime gifts to their unmarried adult children as part of estate planning measures.

As divorce has also become more prevalent in recent decades, people are getting re-married and have accumulated assets and pensions over a lifetime.  These features have led to all different kinds of people exploring nuptial agreements as a means of protecting their pre-marital wealth from the implications of a future separation.

In terms of challenges, our matrimonial laws need to be urgently reformed to reflect modern family life, and in Northern Ireland, the path to statutory reform is a long one.

4. What has been the most important lesson you have learned in your career so far?

You only have one reputation and Northern Ireland is a small place. A solicitor should always act with integrity and honesty and it is important that is always at the forefront of everything we do.

5. What’s the most rewarding part of working in Family Law?

It sounds cliché but helping people.  Our clients turn to us when they are navigating the most difficult period of their lives.  They tend to be at their lowest point in that moment.  To advise and represent our clients through the most sensitive personal matters, to secure their entitlements, and to observe them rebuild their lives with self-confidence going into the future is a remarkable privilege.

 

Find out more about Cleaver Fulton Rankin’s Family & Matrimonial services here.

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