. Family law on Calverley Road. Resolution and Children Panel accredited.
Tunbridge Wells, Kent Resolution Code of Practice Children Panel accredited

Family law at 79 Calverley Road, by appointment.

A family-law-only practice. Five practising solicitors, every one a Resolution member, with the Law Society Children Law Accreditation Scheme held by two of the team. The Tunbridge Wells office sits on the pedestrianised stretch of Calverley Road, next to the Marks & Spencer entrance to Royal Victoria Place. Direct line, dedicated diary, video appointments by Zoom or Teams as standard.

Resolution Resolution Code of Practice followed firm-wide
Children Panel Law Society Children Law Accreditation Scheme
SQM Specialist Quality Mark, Legal Aid Agency
SRA 618658 Licensed body, all legal services
The pedestrianised stretch of Calverley Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, looking toward the Marks and Spencer entrance to Royal Victoria Place. The office at number 79 sits on this parade.
Calverley Road · Royal Tunbridge Wells
The branch sits between Waterstones and the M&S Calverley Road entrance.
Notice ·  The Tunbridge Wells diary is open for first appointments throughout May and June 2026. Video appointments available within five working days. Care-proceedings clients screened for Legal Aid at the first call. Send an enquiry →

Four areas of family practice.

Single-discipline family law. No conveyancing, no probate, no employment. Every file is opened, conducted and closed by a solicitor on the Resolution register.

01 / Divorce and finances

Divorce, the financial settlement, pension sharing.

Divorce and dissolution of civil partnership, and the financial order that follows. Pension sharing on divorce, including public-sector schemes and private DC pots; financial remedy work where one or both parties owns a trading company, a partnership, or farming land in Kent or Sussex; spousal periodical payments where capital cannot meet the need. Because every solicitor on the file is a Resolution member, mediation, hybrid mediation and the consent-order route are the default rather than the exception.

02 / Children matters

Child Arrangements, special guardianship, care proceedings.

Private children law, where separating parents need a Child Arrangements Order to record live-with and spend-time-with arrangements, or a Prohibited Steps or Specific Issue Order. Public children law, where Kent County Council or another local authority has brought care proceedings or pre-proceedings PLO meetings. Two of our solicitors hold the Law Society Children Law Accreditation Scheme panel membership, the senior practitioner standard for this work.

03 / Cohabitation and pre-nups

TOLATA, cohabitation agreements, pre and post-nuptial agreements.

For unmarried couples separating where one party holds the legal title to the home and the other has contributed financially, a Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act application is the route to a fair share. Cohabitation agreements at the start of a relationship to record contributions and intentions in writing. Pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements to ring-fence inherited wealth, business assets, or assets brought into a second marriage from a first.

04 / Protection

Non-molestation and occupation orders, domestic abuse.

Emergency non-molestation orders to stop harassment, threats or violence, including without-notice applications where there is immediate risk. Occupation orders to require an abuser to leave the family home or to keep them out. Prohibited Steps Orders where there is a fear that a parent will remove a child from the jurisdiction. We hold the Specialist Quality Mark and act on Legal Aid for eligible domestic abuse and care-proceedings clients.

The practice

Twenty-five years of family work, run from three Sussex and Kent offices.

Elaine Parkes opened the practice in Hastings in 2000 and built it, over twenty-five years, into a three-office family-law specialist. She incorporated the firm in 2014, took the Brighton lease in the early 2020s, and opened the Tunbridge Wells office on Calverley Road shortly after. Elaine retired from the board in January 2025. The firm trades under her name, with Jeremy Gillham as Compliance Officer and the practising solicitors named below.

The practice has only ever done family law. Divorce and the financial order that follows, private and public children matters, cohabitation and pre-nuptial agreements, non-molestation and occupation orders. Every solicitor is a Resolution member. Two of the team hold the Law Society Children Law Accreditation Scheme panel membership. The firm carries the Specialist Quality Mark for Legal Aid family work.

The Resolution Code of Practice is not a marketing line for this firm. It is how the work is done. We deal directly with the other side, look first for mediation, and reserve contested proceedings for when the other options have been considered. The practice, on its approach to family law

The solicitors who run the files.

The solicitor you meet at the opening appointment is the solicitor who runs the file. Tunbridge Wells appointments are conducted by the solicitor with the relevant accreditation for the work.

Stephen Long, Solicitor at Elaine Parkes Solicitors

Stephen Long

Solicitor

Children Law accredited

Robert Jempson, Solicitor at Elaine Parkes Solicitors

Robert Jempson

Solicitor

SRA 19069 (senior practitioner)

Holly Taylor, Solicitor at Elaine Parkes Solicitors

Holly Taylor

Solicitor

Family and children

Sara Pugh, Manager at Elaine Parkes Solicitors

Sara Pugh

Manager

Tunbridge Wells, Brighton and Hastings operations

Accreditations

Three credentials that shape the work.

The Resolution Code of Practice is the family-law professional body's code; every solicitor here is a member and follows it on every file. The Law Society Children Law Accreditation Scheme is the senior practitioner panel for children work; two of the team are on it. The Specialist Quality Mark is the Legal Aid Agency's contract standard, which is what allows the firm to act for Legal Aid clients in care proceedings.

Together they are the reason a family on Calverley Road does not need to leave Tunbridge Wells to find a senior family solicitor, or a Children Panel solicitor for a care-proceedings PLO letter, or a firm able to act on Legal Aid for the same work.

Resolution: First for Family Law
Resolution member
firm-wide
Law Society Children Law Accreditation Scheme
Children Law
Accreditation Scheme
Specialist Quality Mark
Specialist Quality
Mark, Legal Aid
First contact

Tell us, in a paragraph, what the family situation is.

A first contact is usually a short call or a written enquiry. We come back within one working day with the next step, whether that is a first appointment with a named solicitor, a referral to mediation, or signposting to a service better suited to the matter. There is no charge for the first contact and no obligation.

Or email directly

Your enquiry is held under the firm's GDPR retention schedule and is not shared with any third party. The Tunbridge Wells diary is checked twice a day, weekdays.

Thank you. The enquiry has been logged. A solicitor will reply within one working day to the email above.

79 Calverley Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, TN1 2UY. Five minutes' walk from Tunbridge Wells station; the Calverley Road parade is pedestrianised between Camden Road and Grosvenor Road. Open in Google Maps ↗
Frequently asked

Questions clients actually ask at the first contact.