about Gardner wildblood llp
Gardner Wildblood LLP was set up by Dr Freda Gardner and Stephen Wildblood KC in 2024. They developed the partnership to combine their skills as lawyer and clinical psychologist/expert witness to provide a form of non-court dispute resolution (NCDR) to help families resolve their issues without going to court. By working together, they can provide a unique service for families covering the full range of family issues, including those relating to children, and those relating to family finances and relationships.
The model is different to established models of mediation or any other form of established NCDR. It does not involve legal advice, psychological assessment, or psychological intervention. Stephen and Freda work together with families to help them find an effective alternative to the distress and expense of adversarial family litigation. The work involves meeting with families to help achieve effective and enduring outcomes.
ABOUT DR FREDA GARDNER
Dr Gardner has worked clinically with adults/children and families since 1993, working with complex mental health and psychological difficulties, including developmental trauma, attachment, and parenting difficulties. Dr Gardner has continued to work as a clinician in a variety of settings, including NHS and independent services, and has clinical experience using a range of psychological models and interventions.
Dr Gardner has worked as a Law Society approved expert witness since 2002. She has provided assessments for the Courts in respect of childcare, attachment, assessment of the impact of psychological functioning on parenting, and risk assessment. She has regularly provided oral evidence in family courts, in public and private law proceedings. Dr Gardner has seen at first hand the profound impact that private law proceedings can have on families, and the difficulties children and parents can experience adjusting to arrangements associated with separation.
Dr Gardner has also provided intervention for children and parents to support adjustment, and recovery. In the context of all areas of her work, she has increasingly realised how long-term difficulties could be avoided. She is determined to offer an alternative approach to resolution.
ABOUT STEPHEN WILDBLOOD KC
Stephen Wildblood practised in Family Law for 27 years from Albion Chambers in Bristol, the last 8 ½ years being as Queen’s Counsel. His work at the bar was divided equally between cases concerning children and those concerning the financial arrangements following divorce and separation. As a QC (now KC) he dealt with the most complex cases in all fields of Family law.
Stephen began sitting as a part-time judge in 1995 and was appointed as a Deputy High Court Judge in 2004. In 2009 he became a Circuit Judge and, for the first seven years after his appointment, he sat in Devon and Cornwall, hearing Family, Criminal and Civil cases. In 2013 he was appointed as the Designated Family Judge for the five counties in and around Bristol. Thereafter he heard only Family cases, in the Family and High Courts, dealing with the full range of Family issues.
Stephen has written and contributed to over twenty legal textbooks and continues to write on issues of law. He is the general editor and a contributor to the encyclopaedic work, Wildblood and Eaton – Financial Provision in Family Matters. He writes on issues relating to children in Butterworths Family Law Service and for The Family Court Practice (‘the Red Book’)