Joseph Landman

Joseph acts in all aspects of proceedings relating to the financial consequences of relationship breakdown, including matrimonial finance, enforcement, variations and applications under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989. He has experience of complex claims, including those with international elements, complex business structures, pensions, and non-marital assets.

Joseph also has experience of off-shore finance matters, having been seconded to a well-known firm in Jersey. In his matrimonial finance work, he has been praised by solicitors of handling complex matters with “quiet aplomb” and for his pragmatic approach.

Joseph’s instructions span the full range of private law children matters, ranging from contact, education to relocation and residence matters. Within his private practice, he is often instructed in cases involving allegations of domestic abuse, and he acts in multi-day fact-finding hearings, and final hearings. Instructing solicitors have credited his client care as being “kind and attentive.”

His specialism in modern families leads to frequent instructions in matters relating to legal parentage and parental responsibility, including complex conception cases, donor conception, artificial insemination, and surrogacy. He is a sought-after barrister in applications for parental orders following surrogacy (domestic and international), declarations as to parentage, adoption, and questions of cross-border family status. In 2025, he was invited to address the Resolution Modern Families forum.

His recent reported cases include P v Q and F (Child: Legal Parentage) [2024] EWCA Civ 878 and Re X (A Child) (Husband of Child’s Mother: Declaration of No Parental Responsibility) [2025] EWHC 2542 (Fam).

Joseph has a particular interest in abduction work, and frequently appears in Hague Convention and wardship proceedings in the High Court. He has experience of every stage of the applications, from urgent ex-parte hearings (including out-of hours applications) to directions hearings, and case management of applications through to multi-day final hearings.

Joseph has successfully represented a number of individuals throughout proceedings in applications for return of children to this jurisdiction under the inherent jurisdiction (including Thailand) and return of children from this jurisdiction under the 1980 Hague Convention (see RS and TU (Children: Return Order to Zimbabwe) [2025] EWHC 3298 (Fam)). 

His international practice also sees him instructed in cross-border applications relating to children, including applications for contact under Article 21 of the 1980 Hague Convention.

Joseph has been instructed on a range of public law children matters, by a full range of parties, and is often sought as retained counsel for vulnerable clients and local authorities alike.

He has been instructed as a junior in complex multi-day fact-finding hearings, and in cases which concern cross-border jurisdictional questions and transfer of proceedings. He also appeared, successfully, as junior counsel in the appeal of Re D (Threshold Findings and Final Orders at IRH) [2025] EWCA Civ 1632, at which the Court of Appeal endorsed concerns about the standard approach to threshold by non-engagement by parents.