Leanne Instrall
Leanne is a Legal Director in our family team.
A family solicitor and collaborative lawyer, Leanne advises on all areas of private family law with a focus on financial matters.
An expert in matrimonial finance proceedings and contentious financial disputes through negotiations, court proceedings and other forms of dispute resolution, Leanne is adept at dealing with complex financial assets including business interests and trusts.
Her work also includes unmarried separation and property disputes, Schedule 1 Children Act claims and school fees orders, as well as pre- and post-nuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements.
Leanne additionally deals with private law children matters and child arrangements orders. She is experienced in advising separated parents who would either like to move to a different part of the UK or take their children abroad to live with them. She has been involved in cases with an international aspect across Europe, the US, New Zealand and the Philippines.
Highly pragmatic, Leanne takes a straightforward approach to resolve matters as swiftly as possible. Her realistic and direct advice enables clients to make informed decisions.
As a qualified collaborative law practitioner, she is able to undertake cases in the Collaborative Law Process and has also completed her Resolution Together training to offer ‘One Lawyer’ alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options.
Leanne aspired to become a lawyer from a young age. The first in her family to attend university, she joined our Manchester office as a Paralegal in 2012 and hasn’t looked back since. A dedicated yoga practitioner in her spare time, Leanne’s calming presence helps her to lead our social mobility initiatives, which have included the launch of our Maurice Watkins Bursary. Delivered in partnership with We Love MCR, the bursary helps disadvantaged young Mancunians to begin careers in law. She also oversees our founder member partnership with Belong — the cohesion and integration network that aims “to be the UK’s leading membership organisation on social cohesion and integration” and create “a more integrated and less divided society”.
A member of Resolution and the Chair of the Manchester YRes committee, Leanne won the YRes Rising Star Award at the Resolution Awards 2023 for “her potential as a future leader of family justice”, with the judges stating that she is “a role model beyond her years of practice”. She also sits on Resolution’s Manchester and national standards committees.
Leanne is continuously recognised by Chambers & Partners as an ‘Associate to Watch’ for her “notable experience in financial remedy proceedings and private law children matters” and being “very talented and technical”. She has also been praised for her “incredible client service, attention to detail and pragmatic approach… with resolution always in mind”.
She is recognised by The Legal 500, which notes that Leanne is “extremely capable and hardworking” and “a key contact for complex children cases”.
Leanne was awarded the Legal Professional of the Year award at the Made in Manchester Awards 2024 and the Highly Commended award in the Legal Professional of the Year category at the Manchester Young Talent Awards 2023.
