On Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd February 2019, Edinburgh found itself overrun by Family Law practitioners as 180 Solicitors, Advocates, Barristers, Sheriffs and Judges from across Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland arrived for the annual Four Jurisdictions Family Law Conference 2019.   
The Four Jurisdictions Family Law Conference is a CPD event which aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Family Law topics topical across all four jurisdictions.Speakers include practitioners from each of the four jurisdictions, all experts in the Family Law field. Balfour+Manson are proud to have been instrumental in organising the conference since 2000 and we were fortunate to have four members of our Family Team in attendance along with Shona Smith, Head of the Family Law Team, who sits on the Committee.   
This year the event kicked off in style with a champagne drinks reception at the Royal Yacht Britannia and ended with a Black Tie dinner and dance at the Assembly Rooms.However, it wasn’t all fun and games and we settled in for the serious business on the Saturday.  Speakers from across the four jurisdictions provided legal updates on a variety of topics, including Vulnerable Witnesses, Division of Assets on Divorce and International Enforcement of Financial Orders.  Discussions on how Brexit could impact Family Law practitioners inevitably took place and there were many interesting observations and issues raised as we heard from an EU perspective.   
One again, the Conference was hugely valuable to those in attendance.As practitioners in Scotland, it is very useful to have good links with our peers across the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland as we often deal with cases with an international dimension.The Four Jurisdictions Conference provides us with a much needed opportunity to learn from our peers and explore how Family Law is developing cross-jurisdictionally, as well as to maintain friendships with colleagues in different countries.