Alison Edmondson

Spear’s Review

A skilled negotiator and experienced litigator, family lawyer Alison Edmondson is a proponent of alternatives to litigation, including mediation, collaborative law and arbitration.

The Edinburgh-based partner at SKO Family Law has significant experience of financial issues arising from separation and divorce, including where individuals’ business interests, pensions, tax position and inherited wealth are involved. This also includes the impact of separation on retirement and planning for retirement.

In addition, Edmondson is adept at handling cases whereby one party has lost capacity, as well as the international protection of vulnerable adults and disputed inheritance claims.

Clients, Edmondson notes, ‘want clear, analytical, pragmatic advice tempered by sensitivity to the very personal nature of the matters we are discussing’.

Adviser Profile

Alison Edmondson is a specialist in resolution of complex family financial disputes. She has particular expertise in cases relating to business interests, pensions, taxation and inherited wealth, including in connection with retirement and retirement planning. Her practice also includes family cases with novel issues such as cases where one party has lost capacity, the international protection of vulnerable adults and disputed inheritance claims.

Chambers and Partners HNW 2023 note, “Alison is a class act. In terms of family law advice she operates with an iron fist in a velvet glove.” and “Alison is sensible, wise, pragmatic – yet tough and absolutely prepared to fight when needed. She is the perfect lawyer – empathetic and understanding, but also good at analysing and setting the legals out really clearly and dispassionately.”

Alison is one of only seven solicitors in Scotland to be elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and one of four Scottish named individuals in Chambers HNW Guide. 

She regularly writes and lectures for, amongst others, STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), ICAS (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland) and Update (Law Society of Scotland).

Alison is a skilled negotiator and an experienced litigator in both the Court of Session and Sheriff Court as well as being committed to alternatives to the court process, including mediation, collaborative law and arbitration. She is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a Specialist in Family Law and as a Family Mediator, and has a postgraduate qualification in Mediation and Conflict Resolution. She is trained as a Collaborative Lawyer and Family Law Arbitrator, and is a founder member of Family Law Arbitration Group (Scotland).