Robert Gilmour

Spear’s Review

‘You can learn from others, but you can only be truly successful by finding your own voice,’ says Robert Gilmour, specialist family lawyer at SKO Family Law in Edinburgh. He describes being inspired by his clients, and that ‘the humour, resilience and generosity of people in the most trying of circumstances is a constant source of inspiration’.

Gilmour advises individuals in relation to all types of complex legal issues arising from relationship breakdown, parent/child relationships and family relationships more generally. He is also an accredited family law mediator and arbitrator. One of the more challenging areas of Gilmour’s work arises from the increasingly global and highly mobile nature of HNW families, which makes for complex cases across multiple jurisdictions.

Adviser Profile

Robert Gilmour is a Partner at SKO Family Law Specialists and is one of only four named individuals in the current Edition of Chambers HNW in Scotland where it is noted: “Robert is exceptionally able and engenders a great feeling of trust” and “Robert is an absolute legal encyclopaedia. He’s very knowledgeable and thorough.”

Robert’s practice covers the full range of family law matters and he has a wealth of courtroom experience. He is particularly well known for his strength in novel and unusual family law matters, and he leads SKO’s surrogacy and assisted reproduction team. He is widely recognised as the leading practitioner in this field in Scotland. The current edition of Chambers and Partners Family/Matrimonial Guide 2023 notes, “Robert is renowned for his technical knowledge and is particularly helpful with regards to surrogacy matters.” Robert advises intended parents undergoing surrogacy journeys at home and overseas and has worked with egg and sperm donors. He has been consulted by medical professionals and individuals in relation to Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act matters arising from the HFEA legal parenthood audit in 2014. He regularly writes on and provides commentary to the media on surrogacy. 

Robert is also recognised for particular expertise in cohabitation claims, having acted for the successful applicant in the ground-breaking, and widely reported, Supreme Court case of Gow v Grant, where the Court upheld his first instance advocacy.

Robert is a very experienced mediator and has a busy practice mediating alone and co-mediating in cases where a gender balance is desired by clients. He is is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Family Law and as a Family Mediator, and is also a Family Law Arbitrator.