Please find below brief details of all the legal experts who generously give their time to support Restored Lives experts evening.
Amanda Bell is a family and divorce lawyer by background. She spent the majority of her legal career working at a leading family law firm helping clients to sort out their money, property and parenting arrangements following a separation.
Amanda now leads SeparateSpace, the affordable online divorce platform that provides expert legal, financial, practical and emotional support, helping people move forward with confidence.
Angelique Edkins
Mediator
Heart of England Family Mediation
I am the founder of Heart of England Family Mediation and support families through
separation, child arrangements and relationship breakdown in a constructive and child-
focused way.
With a professional background in education and leadership, I bring a calm, empathetic and
practical approach to mediation. I support families experiencing a range of complex issues,
including communication difficulties, high conflict, addiction and recovery, kinship care
arrangements and situations involving children with additional needs.
I offer mediation relating to divorce and separation, child arrangements, financial
discussions and wider family matters. I also conduct MIAMs (Mediation Information and
Assessment Meetings), which help individuals understand the mediation process and
explore whether mediation may be suitable before making an application to Court.
My approach is compassionate, balanced and focused on helping families reduce conflict,
improve communication and move forward in a way that feels manageable and sustainable
for everyone involved.
Heart of England Family Mediation offers both in-person and online mediation services
across Warwickshire and the surrounding areas.
Tanya Foster
Family Law Mediator & Solicitor
True North Mediation
[email protected]
Tanya is a family law solicitor with over 25 years’ experience, she provides compassionate, bespoke, practical advice to her clients. She is a trained mediator working to help families find solutions together without resorting to the family court.
As a mediator and an accredited family solicitor with Resolution, Tanya specialises in financial provision and private children proceedings. Her other areas of expertise include pre & post nuptial and living together agreements. I am committed to resolving issues and advocate non-court pathways whenever possible.
Grace Lawrence
Family Solicitor
FLiP
[email protected]
Grace advises on all aspects of private family law including financial and children’s matters and pre and post nuptial agreements. Her work has a strong international dimension and many of her cases involve substantial business interests and trust structures.
Grace has been ranked consistently as a “Rising Star” by the Legal 500. The 2026 edition notes: “Grace Lawrence is wise beyond her years and has a stellar career ahead of her”. Earlier editions note: “Grace Lawrence is a fabulous associate – arguably the best family law associate of her generation”. “Grace Lawrence is fiercely intelligent, forthright, conscientious.” Grace is: “extremely competent, knowledgeable and empathetic. [She has] given excellent service to our mutual client” and she is “a delight to deal with and on the way up”. Grace has also been featured in Tatler as one of “London’s top family lawyers” speaking about the role of pre-nuptial agreements in protecting family wealth. In 2024, Grace was nominated in the Spears Awards as a “Future Leader of Private Client Services”. Grace was also included in the Doyles Guide to Family and Divorce Law for London 2025 as a Family Law Rising Star.
FLiP is a specialist family law firm. It takes a unique approach to family law, guiding you with exceptional legal expertise, integrity, and specialist emotional and practical support.
Kirsty Morris
Family Solicitor
BurgessMee
[email protected]
www.burgessmee.com
Kirsty has over 12 years’ experience advising clients going through the breakdown of a relationship. She advises clients who are attending mediation and those who wish to negotiate a financial settlement or arrangements for children out of court. When necessary, Kirsty also advises clients in either the court process or another form of private dispute resolution such as arbitration or private hearings.
Clients have praised Kirsty’s calm, supportive and positive approach. Kirsty is recognised in the Legal 500 as ‘very impressive’. Her excellent client care skills and fantastic judgement enable her to offer sensible, pragmatic advice to clients’ and she is described as ‘intelligent and robust. Gives clear and realistic advice’ (2019).
Kirsty’s CPCAB Counselling Studies certificates have given her the ability to deal sensitively with the emotional issues associated with relationship breakdown.
Kirsty also advises unmarried clients when a relationship breaks down following a period of cohabitation. She is up to date with the latest developments in this growing area and sits on Resolution’s Cohabitation Committee. She also drafts cohabitation agreements and separation agreements.
Jennifer is a Partner at Irwin Mitchell. She is passionate about providing the highest level of service to her clients with a personal touch. She qualified in 2009 and practises exclusively in family law. She works nationally and specialises in all aspects of relationship breakdown, divorce, cohabitation disputes, children issues and domestic abuse injunctions. She has specialist knowledge and expertise in advising both vulnerable clients and high net worth individuals on the financial aspects of separation, including dealing with pension and business assets upon divorce. She is a Resolution Accredited Children Specialist and leads the Children Team at Irwin Mitchell. She has a real interest and experience in dealing with complex Children Act cases, including cases involving international elements, parental alienation, disability, and where serious allegations have been made. She is fully committed to promoting a constructive approach that considers the needs of the whole family.
Michelle RumseyI’m Michelle Rumsey, an accredited family mediator with over four years’ experience, as well as a couples, individual, and family therapist. I work with LKW Family Mediation alongside my two colleagues, Louisa, the owner of LKW Family Mediation, and Emma. Together, we provide a client focused service built on a wealth of experience, with Louisa and Emma bringing their backgrounds as non-practising lawyers and myself offering a therapeutic perspective. I understand that separation can be one of the most difficult and emotional times in people’s lives. In my mediation work, I aim to come across as both professional and empathetic to the struggles that people face during this process, creating a calm and supportive space where each person feels heard and understood.
Drawing on my therapeutic background, I am particularly aware of how conflict and communication difficulties can impact individuals and families. I work to gently reduce tension, support clearer communication, and help keep conversations focused on finding practical and workable outcomes.
Where children are involved, their wellbeing remains at the centre of the process. My aim is to support individuals and couples in moving forward in a way that feels respectful, constructive, and more manageable for the future.
Venetia Tosswill
Family Mediator
True North Mediation
[email protected]
Venetia is a fully accredited family mediator working with separated and divorcing couples, as well as those already divorced. She helps clients resolve the many issues that arise when a relationship breaks down. She is committed to helping families navigate the difficult transitions that can take place on separation.
Venetia focuses on helping clients settle issues whilst recognising the need for co-operation as parents. She is a passionate advocate of mediation and its ability to keep families out of the court system and work towards a positive future. Venetia’s approach is practical, constructive and insightful with an eye on the need for a sustainable and workable solution.
Venetia’s background is in law, having practiced as a solicitor with a firm of top London divorce lawyers. She has also spent over 10 years lecturing family law at post-graduate level and continues to train newly qualified mediators in the subject.