His Honour Stephen Wildblood KC moves across to 3PB

29th November 2023

His Honour Stephen Wildblood KC, who retired as a Circuit Judge on Tuesday 21st November, has announced that he is joining national chambers 3PB (3 Paper Buildings) with immediate effect as an associate tenant. Stephen will be accepting appointments as a Private FDR Judge and, in relation to finances and children, as a mediator and early neutral evaluator. He is also intending to qualify as family law arbitrator in the immediate future. He will continue to sit, as a part-time judge, in the Family and High Courts.

Stephen was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1980. He practised for 27 years (9 years in Silk) as a family barrister, specialising predominantly in family finance cases, but also in disputes over children (both Private and Public Law). Stephen was appointed to the Circuit Bench in the South West in 2007, hearing family, civil and criminal cases. In 2013 he accepted the post of Designated Family Judge for Bristol, North Somerset and Gloucestershire, a post he held until his retirement from the Bench.

Stephen has written in over twenty legal textbooks on many issues across the different family law disciplines. He has an honorary doctorate in Law from UWE. He lectures frequently at prominent events. He has set up and driven many initiatives in Bristol and beyond to support litigants in person, and others who face involvement with the family and social justice systems. Appointed a Family Course Tutor at the Judicial College from 2010 to 2018, he has been, and remains, a Faculty Tutor at the College. He is also an author and playwright.

Vanessa Meachin KC, Head of 3PB's 80-strong Family Law team, said: "Stephen is exceptionally experienced in deciding family finance and children cases at the highest level. He is an outstanding addition to the 3PB Family team’s Alternative Dispute Resolution group, further strengthening our ability to offer the highest calibre of Private FDR Judges nationally."

Details of Stephen's retirement from the bench, announced by HMTCS on the 21st November can be read here.

This is the second former senior judge to join 3PB’s national chambers in 2023, Martin Dancey, a former Circuit Judge and the Designated Family Judge on England's South Coast, also moved from the Bench to Chambers in January 2023.

To contact Stephen, do email him on [email protected]. To instruct him on any matter, do email his clerk Mark Heath on [email protected] or call him on 0117 928 1520.