The challenges of rising cost of living, wage growth, and getting on the property ladder has seen a significant increase in financial support offered by parents and grandparents to children.

1 in 3 first time buyers are cohabitees, and according to the Office for National Statistics figures there has been a 20% increase in the number of people not in marriages or civil partnership cohabiting since 2012; 5.4m people to 6.8m. It continues to be the fastest rising living arrangement.

Against this backdrop what happens when a cohabiting relationship breaks down, and parent/grandparents are concerned their financial support may end up in the hand of parties they don't want it to.

Kate Booth, Head of the Family Team at Brindley, Twist, Tafft & James Solicitors joins the Today's Family Lawyer podcast to discuss the issue, highlighting some of her recent work on the subject. She points to these often informal arrangements, whereby no discussion around repayment, or interest is considered, becoming a more formal concern in the event of a relationship breakdown, and/or sale of a property.

One of the main points of contention is whether the money is classed on separation as a gift or a loan. Kate also discusses the complications around hard and soft liabilities which can come into the matter as well.

In 2022, P v Q provides some pointers on how the courts might deal with debts and is a useful precedent when taking on such matters.

Kate explains in detail some of the considerations practitioners should account for when dealing with such maters in an informative and interesting discussion.

The Today's Family Lawyer podcast is available on your preferred podcast provider and at www.todaysfamilylawyer.co.uk.

Subscribe to Today's Family Lawyer to receive our FREE weekly newsletter, out every Thursday and listen in to the podcast to hear all the latest news and views from across the family law sector.

The latest Today's Family Lawyer Podcast explores the increasing importance of specialising in certain areas of the law and being regarded as an expert in your field.

Kim Lehal, Partner and Head of International Children at RWK Goodman, is one of just 49 accredited firms on the Ministry of Justice's Child Abduction: Accredited Solicitors Referral List. As such she is regarded as an expert in International Children matters specialising in international abduction, cross border adoption, surrogacy arrangements and other children matters.

She explains how important it is to be seen as the expert; how clients are far more sophisticated and looking for the best representation. They have access to greater information about their lawyers via the web which makes building credibility all the more important.

On a practical level, the constantly evolving nature of law means becoming expert in just a handful of areas is much more achievable; gone are the days of writing a client's will in the morning, and dealing with a divorce in the afternoon.

And alongside legal expertise, tactical and practical advice is important to the role of the family lawyer. Understanding how a situation might unfold and preparing for it.

It is critical, says Kim, the public have trust and confidence in us as lawyers. We should be personable, honest, and have confidence in our own abilities. It is a relationship with a client and therefore both client and lawyer need to comfortable working together.

In a fascinating discussion Kim shares how she came into family practice, how she began to specialise in children, and the importance senior lawyers play as mentors to junior practitioners.

The Today's Family Lawyer podcast is available on your preferred podcast provider and at www.todaysfamilylawyer.co.uk.

Subscribe to Today's Family Lawyer to receive our FREE weekly newsletter, out every Thursday and listen in to the podcast to hear all the latest news and views from across the family law sector.

Joining the latest Today's Family Lawyer Podcast is Dan Temple, an expert in acknowledging and understanding the human impact of working, and managing employees and businesses. The discussion centres on creating effective and high performing teams, and what steps law firms can, and should, be taking to enable this in their business.

Dan leads Cobalt Human Solutions, a training consultancy which focuses on creating effective teams, drawn from his own experiences in the Royal Air Force as part of the Chinook helicopter crew.

The podcast discusses how creating high performing teams requires a number of key elements. Dan describes how trust and accountability are paramount.

• There should be a clear objective and vision which can be communicated to the team
• Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and people understand their own contribution to success
• Processes and procedures are in place that ensure the training is effective
• People have to have the ability to get on with others; they don't necessarily need to like one another, but there must be mutual respect

Ultimately, says Dan, the environment and culture of the workplace is where the success and failure of organisations is derived. He suggests that one of the key failings he identifies in many businesses is a blame culture; the inability of staff to be open, honest and appropriately challenge - what Dan describes as a "just culture." Staff are fearful of doing something wrong, rather than challenging management.

As well as root cause analysis, Dan encourages organisations to conduct "pre-mortems" - the idea being that you spend time identifying potential pitfalls in a plan and anticipate how you might deal with them should they arise.

And if you ever wanted to understand how the difference between egg mayonnaise and aircraft is relevant to leadership and management, listen in to this insightful and entertaining discussion.

The Today's Family Lawyer podcast is available on your preferred podcast provider and at www.todaysfamilylawyer.co.uk.

Subscribe to Today's Family Lawyer to receive our FREE weekly newsletter, out every Thursday and listen in to the podcast to hear all the latest news and views from across the family law sector.