Emma Wilders-Pratt is a Partner and Head of the Family Team at Trethowans.
Emma specialises in all aspects of family law and relationship breakdown, advising on divorce, financial disputes between spouses and cohabitants, private law children cases and pre and post-nuptial agreements.
Emma has particular expertise in complex financial remedy cases, including those involving business interests, inherited and generational wealth, farming assets, trusts and Armed Forces pensions. Emma is frequently instructed in high-net-worth matters where asset structures or pension arrangements require detailed analysis and strategic handling.
Emma also has extensive experience advising on children-related issues, including applications for removal from the jurisdiction, disputes concerning children’s living arrangements, and matters involving grandparents.
A member of Resolution and a trained collaborative family lawyer, Emma is committed to helping clients resolve matters outside of court where appropriate. She works closely with clients to explore constructive alternatives to litigation and achieve practical, workable outcomes.
Emma’s aim is to help clients move through separation with their dignity intact, feeling informed and in control of the process and, where possible, able to establish a positive post-separation parenting relationship.
Emma has been ranked as a Next Generation Partner in the Legal 500, which notes, “Emma Wilders-Pratt is especially well known for her work for clients with inherited wealth, military pensions, and other intricate asset structures.” Emma is described in the Legal 500 as, “a tough litigator and does all she can to achieve the best outcomes for clients,” and as being “highly knowledgeable but also pragmatic,” and someone who “stands out above the rest in Hampshire and Wiltshire.”
Notable work highlights
Reported case W v H (divorce financial remedies) [2020] EWFC B10:
- In April 2020 Emma was instructed for the wife in a case involving the treatment of pensions on divorce. The case was before HHJ Hess, Deputy Lead Judge of the Financial Remedy Court. The authority quotes widely from the Pensions Advisory Group report published in 2019 and has very useful guidance as to how pensions should be treated on divorce. We were successful in arguing that the total £2.1m pension fund should be shared between the parties on the basis of equality of income, despite the husband’s pre-marital contributions. The case also provides helpful guidance on global maintenance orders and costs orders.
- Emma has been ranked as a next generation partner in the recent edition of the Legal 500, who state “Emma Wilders-Pratt is especially well known for her work for clients with inherited wealth, military pensions, and other intricate asset structures.”
Other examples of recent cases:
- Acting for a wife in financial remedy proceedings. Complex pension assets held in a different jurisdiction. Husband sought to ring fence the majority of his pension wealth. Emma and her team were able to secure a pension share that provided equal income on retirement.
- Representing husband in financial remedy proceedings. Complex assets worth £25m held in companies in different jurisdictions. Allegations of litigation conduct and sale of assets at an undervalue where successfully defeated by Emma and her team.
- Acting for mother following father’s application for Child Arrangements Order. Father was extremely emotionally abusive and controlling throughout the marriage. Throughout the case the father who acted in person was litigious and hostile. Emma and the team were able to secure a final order where the Court found it would not be in the best interests of the children for the father to spend time with the children due to his conduct and the risk of harm he posed to the children.
- Acting in a number of collaborative cases where financial aspects of the marriage and the future arrangements of the children needed to be addressed. On each occasion partes were able to agree terms in respect of both and, with the supportive environment of the collaborative approach, foster a positive post separation parenting relationship.
Away from the office
Emma lives in Dorset with her husband. Outside work, you will find Emma keeping up with her two energetic children and their busy sports schedules, or planning her next open-water swim.
Accreditations & Memberships
- Member of Resolution
- Trained Collaborative Lawyer
- Member of Collaborative Family Solutions
- Legal 500 Next Generation Partner
- Chambers ranked
- Listed as a Leading Lawyer by Wiselaw
- Dragonfly Champion
- Trethowans board member
- Winner of the Innovative Marketing Award at the Legal Growth Awards 2026 for The Candid Divorce Lawyer podcast
Testimonials
What our clients say about Emma
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