Rachel Bale is a specialist junior in Property, Chancery & Matrimonial Finances, with a particular emphasis on trusts. As a fierce and trusted advocate, Rachel often appears in cases well beyond her year of call. Her diverse practice often sees Rachel advise and represent on multi-disciplinary matters, which involve elements of Property, TOLATA, Chancery, Trusts, Probate and Financial remedies.
Recent experience
Rachel’s clients vary from private client individuals, private/social landlords, social tenants, housing associations, professional executors as well as local and national businesses. Her meticulous, analytical approach compliments her approachable and pragmatic disposition which results in a strong advocacy style and excellent results, including high settlements in mediation and ADR. She appears in County Courts nationwide, Property Tribunals, High Court and successfully drafted pleadings for the Court of Appeal.
Her ethos is to provide “order to the chaos” of emotionally challenging proprietary and family issues that often arise in her client’s lives.
Prior to the Bar, Rachel gained extensive experience as a legal researcher, working on commercial, civil and human rights matters at Matrix Chambers. She also represented vulnerable individuals in housing matters at a London pro-bono clinic and participated in international mediation competitions, globally. Rachel also has knowledge of Family and Administrative French Law having studied at the infamous University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2016. She is fluent in French.
Further to her practice, Rachel is a trusted member of chambers acting as an elected member on internal management decisions within PolCom. She also has commercial experience of running her own company, having founded “Her Bar” in 2021, the online Hub and community for aspiring and practising women barristers.
Rachel is a specialist property practitioner, with a particular emphasis on the law of landlord and tenant and residential property. Her work spans the breadth of residential and commercial, representing both landlords and tenants in the private and public sector.
Rachel provides advice, drafts pleadings, and offers strong advocacy skills in this area. She is experienced in dealing with a range of claims dealing with evictions, claims for non-protection of deposits, breaches of covenant, dilapidations, and anti-social behaviour.
Rachel’s property practice includes the following areas:
Rachel is a specialist traditional chancery practitioner, with a growing practice in private client work. Rachel has experience in contentious probate and estate matters, including bringing and defending financial provision claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975, along with interim applications for the proper administration of estates often appearing in the High Court.
Further Rachel has particular expertise with TOLATA, proprietary estoppel, injunctive relief and other equitable claims. In particular, Rachel has had the following successes:
Rachel is a specialist chancery junior with a strong focus on trusts. She is regularly instructed in complex and high-value matters beyond her year of call and is recognised for her ability to handle technically demanding disputes across trusts and estates, wills and probate, private client property, charities, and financial remedy work
Rachel is a go-to junior for solicitors seeking clear, decisive advice on difficult issues. She is valued for her robust legal analysis, pragmatic no-nonsense advice and practical judgment particularly in fast-moving or sensitive disputes. She is instructed by a broad range of leading and boutique firms.
She is able to aptly adapt to the individual needs of her clients, deploying her ethos of providing “order to the chaos”, whether it be in advising a professional and corporate trustees, high-net-worth individuals, and a vulnerable client in the midst of an emotionally challenging familial dispute.
Solicitors frequently praise Rachel’s meticulous, analytical approach alongside her approachable disposition with clients which results in a strong advocacy style to robustly fight for her client’s interests/ She receives excellent results, including high settlements in mediation and ADR appearing across the entire breadth of tribunals nationwide, including County Courts, Property Tribunals, High Court (Chancery and Family Division) and successfully drafted pleadings for the Court of Appeal.
Prior to the Bar, Rachel received a First-Class Degree in Law and French Law having studied at the infamous University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in 2016 as well as Distinction for her LLM. She has received multiple scholarships and prizes in recognition of his academic achievements.
Further to her practice, Rachel is a trusted member of chambers acting as an elected member on internal management decisions within PolCom. She also has commercial experience of running of her own company, having founded the award-winning “Her Bar” in 2021, the online Hub for aspiring and practising women barristers.
Rachel is a member of the Chancery Bar Association and the Contentious Trusts Association.
Rachel has a thriving trusts practice and is regularly instructed in disputes concerning interpretation of trust deeds, constructive and resulting trusts and trusts of land, including enforcement of such orders.
His recent article entitled “Smoke and Mirrors: Shams and Illusory Trusts in Divorce Proceedings” appeared in Ors” appeared in Summer Issue 2, 2025 – Financial Remedies Journal.
Her work includes:
Rachel has a thriving practice in both contentious and non-contentious will & probate matters. She regularly advises executors, beneficiaries, and interested third parties in all stage of litigation, from initial advice and pre-action strategy to representation in ADR and trials. Her work includes
Rachel is frequently instructed in claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. She advises claimants across all statutory categories, as well as beneficiaries and executors, at every stage of proceedings, from pre-action strategy through to final hearing
She has experience advising on estates ranging from modest values to multi-million-pound estates and is valued for delivering clear, strategic advice in financially and emotionally sensitive disputes.
As an established remedies’ practitioner, Rachel has a unique advantage of current knowledge of the considerations weighed in the family courts to be able to give robust advice on the principle of ‘divorce fiction’ pursuant to section 3(2) in spousal/civil partnership 1975 Act claims for spouses
Her work includes:
Rachel is regularly instructed by personal representatives, trustees, beneficiaries and other interested parties across a wide range of non-contentious private client matters. His practice covers the full spectrum of trust and estate administration and will-drafting.
Her growing experience includes
Rachel has significant experience representing clients across a range of ADR processes, including mediation, early neutral evaluation, and round-table negotiations. She is known for a pragmatic, strategic approach focused on achieving efficient, commercially sound outcomes while minimising cost, risk, and disruption for clients.
Her cases frequently settle at or shortly after mediation, with the process at least often serving to narrow issues and clarify positions prior to litigation.
She is often instructed to:
Rachel’s practice covers all aspects of family finance provisions. She undertakes First Appointments, Financial Dispute Resolutions and Final Hearings. She advises and represents families on financial issues following separation or relationship breakdown including, Trusts of Land Act applications and Schedule One applications for children.
With Rachel’s acute knowledge of property and chancery matters, Rachel is able to advise on technical legal matters involving large estates, property management and inheritance claims. She is also well placed to advise couples on pre-nuptial and cohabitation agreements, as a growing trend. Some particular successes:
Rachel is available for both in person and remote private FDR hearings. For more information on private remote FDR hearings
Rachel Bale provides a recent round up of TOLATA / Schedule 1 cases covering:
3PB's specialist property, chancery and financial remedy barrister Rachel Bale explores how women barrister network Her Bar is celebrating International Women's Day 2023 theme of #EmbraceEquity.
3PB's Rachel Bale considers expectation vs reality in a recent Supreme Court judgment - Guest and another v Guest [2022] UKSC 27. The case discussed the correct approach in calculating the type and amount of equitable relief to be awarded where proprietary estoppel has been made out. This case involved a family dispute over, Tump Farm, a working dairy farm which has been owned by the Guest family since 1938. An interesting aspect of this case is that the court had to consider how to deal with promises of future inheritance where the promisor is still alive. As is often the case with familial issues, the solution is not necessarily clear-cut...
“Another great example of a rising star at 3PB! First class service, great with the client, meticulous and the result speaks for itself on this case” – Instructing solicitor
"Rachel approached my case meticulously. She explained everything to me in a very concise manner, which gave me a lot of confidence before we went into court. She is an asset to your services at 3PB.” - Lay client following possession matter
“Rachel is an outstanding advocate and provided valuable and thorough advice in this matter. Her intricate scrutiny of the Claimant’s claim in a short timescale assisted us in achieving a positive result for the Client.” - Instructing solicitor
“Rachel dealt with a last-minute hearsay application notice completely in her stride in a cool calm and collected manner. She went above and beyond her instructions achieving a winning outcome for the client. I would not hesitate to instruct her again.” – Instructing Solicitor
Welcome to the latest and final newsletter for 2025. It comes hot off the press of some fantastic results for Chambers in the legal directories with record results for the family team. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who gave up their valuable time to provide the feedback, it is very much appreciated.
I hope you have enjoyed our newsletter this year. We thank you for following us in 2025 and we will be back with more updates, articles and innovative ideas in the new year! Please do get in touch if you would like to get involved.
3PB Property, Chancery and Matrimonial Finances barrister Rachel Bale (pictured here) writes for the Financial Remedies Journal an article about ‘shams’ or ‘illusory’ trusts and the challenges they cause in divorce proceedings for family and chancery lawyers alike. Rachel provides guidance on the legal principles to follow to identify shams and illusory trusts and considers the steps to follow to navigate through the difficulties they create, including: Back to basics: key players in a trust...
Continue readingWelcome to our quarterly 3PB family team newsletter, edited by Amy Beddis.
In this edition, we celebrate Aimee Fox and Amy Beddis becoming joint heads of our family finance team and welcome new tenants Peter Wilkinson and Shan Parker. Analysis is provided by Nicola Frost, Andrew J. Duncan, Rachel Bale, David Beatson and Victoria Holland. Our newsletter also features the reported cases that June Venters KC, Andrew J. Duncan, Gemma Chapman, Laurie-Elizabeth Ketley and Paul Froud recently acted in. Our forthcoming events and links to past family law brunch resources are included.
3PB civil law and matrimonial finance barrister Rachel Bale (pictured here), who co-founded the support network Her Bar with Nasreen Shah from Great James Street Chambers, hosted a landmark Her Bar conference last Saturday 17 May 2025 at The View in The Royal College of Surgeons of England in London which was organised specifically to assist women barristers, both practising and aspiring counsel. The day welcomed over 100 attendees and featured a distinguished line-up of...
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