David Michael Hodson

Background

A youth club leader in Southampton, who was himself a lawyer, suggested that Hodson consider studying law. Hodson later recalled that he had not chosen law out of a lifelong commitment to it. He was, by his own account, more interested in politics and the social sciences, and he judged that the University of Leicester offered the combination he wanted.

His interest in the social sciences led him to concentrate on family law during his studies. That focus anticipated the career that followed, in which family law and its international dimensions became his central specialisms.

Education

Hodson studied law at the University of Leicester from 1972 to 1975 and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws with honours. The university traces its origins to University College, Leicester, founded in 1921, and it received a royal charter as a university in 1957. Hodson later described his three years there as a formative preparation for both his life and his career as a lawyer, and in 2017 the university appointed him an Honorary Professor of Law.

After his degree, Hodson sat the Law Society Finals at the Guildford campus of the College of Law between 1975 and 1976. The College of Law had been created in 1962 when the Law Society merged its own school, founded in 1903, with the tutorial firm Gibson and Weldon. Following the Ormrod Report on legal education, the Law Society proposed in 1975 a 36-week final examination course taught at the College, a route that the Legal Practice Course replaced in 1993.

Hodson passed the Law Society Part II examinations in 1976 and 1977, gaining a distinction in accounts. He was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales in June 1978, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority records his admission as 15 June 1978.

Career

Hodson began his legal career in 1976 with Hepherd Winstanley & Pugh, a solicitors' practice in Southampton. The practice had a long regional history, and it was taken over by the Bond Pearce group in 1998. He then worked at Anthony Collins & Co. in Birmingham from 1980 to 1981 and at Cooke Matheson & Co. in London from 1981 to 1984.

In 1985 he joined Theodore Goddard in London. The firm had been founded in 1902 by the English solicitor John Theodore Goddard, and it became well known in 1936, when it acted for Wallis Simpson in her divorce proceedings. Hodson has said that he began there as an assistant, became an associate, and then a partner and head of the family law department within four years. He remained with the firm until 1991, and in 2003 Theodore Goddard merged with Addleshaw Booth & Co to form Addleshaw Goddard.

From 1991 to 1995 he worked at Frere Cholmeley Bischoff in London. The firm was a City practice whose founders dated back to the eighteenth century, and it had occupied premises at Lincoln's Inn since 1750. Over-expansion in the 1980s left it in financial difficulty, and in 1998 part of its London business passed to Eversheds, while a group of its partners left to found Forsters.

In 1995 Hodson became a part-time Deputy District Judge sitting at the Principal Registry of the Family Division in London, which is now the Central Family Court. He later also sat on the Western Circuit. He was admitted as an Australian (New South Wales) solicitor in 2003 and practises in Sydney as well as London.

In 2007 he co-founded The International Family Law Group LLP with Ann Thomas. The firm presents itself as the world's first law firm dedicated to serving international families and families with assets abroad. Hodson was a partner there for about sixteen years and later served as Special Counsel. From 2015 he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Law, an institution that originated in 1962 as the College of Law.

Achievements

• Co-founded The International Family Law Group LLP in 2007, a firm that presents itself as the world's first law firm dedicated specifically to serving international families and families with international or foreign assets.

• According to his professional profile, he originated family arbitration in England and Wales, a practice that has since been adopted in other countries.

• In 1995 he co-founded what his professional profile describes as the world's first multi-disciplinary metropolitan family law practice, combining lawyers, mediators and counsellors.

• In the 1990s he was instrumental in the creation of the English Family Law Accreditation Scheme.

Works

• book

  • The Business of Family Law

    (Hodson is the author of this book on the business side of...)

  • Family Law in Europe

    (Hodson serves as consulting editor of this work on family...)

• guide

  • When Cupids Arrow Crosses National Boundaries: A Guide for international families

    (Hodson co-authored this guide for families whose relation...)

• textbook

  • The International Family Law Practice

    (Hodson is author and editor of this LexisNexis Jordans te...)

    2016

Religion

Hodson has described himself as openly Christian, and in 2016 he was recorded as an occasional lay preacher in the Church of England. The Church of England is the established Christian church in England, with origins in the English Reformation of the sixteenth century. Its worship combines scripture, liturgy and a historic episcopal structure, and it forms the mother church of the wider Anglican Communion.

Lay preachers in the Church of England are laypeople who are authorised to preach, complementing the ordained clergy. For a practising lawyer, such a role places a religious vocation alongside a professional life devoted to the resolution of disputes between families.

Membership

Hodson's memberships are concentrated in family law, arbitration and international practice. He is a member of the Family Law Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales, the representative and regulatory body for solicitors in England and Wales, whose predecessor, the Law Institution, was established in 1825.

He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, a body of family lawyers working across many countries, and he has been a Fellow since 1995. His membership of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, a professional body for arbitration and dispute-resolution practitioners, reflects his work as a family arbitrator. He is also a member of LawAsia, an association of lawyers in the Asia-Pacific region, and of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia, the national representative body of the Australian legal profession.

Since 2024 he has been a watchkeeper with the National Coastwatch Institute, a volunteer organisation that maintains coastal lookouts.

• Member of the Family Law Committee

  Law Society of England and Wales , United Kingdom

• Fellow

  International Academy of Family Lawyers

  1995 - present

• Member (MCIArb)

  Chartered Institute of Arbitrators , United Kingdom

• Member

  LawAsia

• Member

  Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia , Australia

• Watchkeeper

  National Coastwatch Institute , United Kingdom

  2024

Connections

Hodson co-founded The International Family Law Group in 2007 with Ann Thomas, and the firm's senior partners were its founding partners. In an interview he acknowledged the support of his former wife, Gillian, and of Ann, and he observed that most family lawyers could not succeed without significant support.

References

• IAFL fellow profile of Professor David Hodson Profile of Hodson as an International Academy of Family Lawyers fellow, setting out his solicitor admission, accreditation, mediation and arbitration qualifications, and his publications.
• Honorary Professor of Law appointed University of Leicester announcement of Hodson's appointment as Honorary Professor of Law, noting that he graduated with an LLB from Leicester after studying there from 1972 to 1975.
  2017
• David Hodson OBE University of Law alumni profile describing Hodson's Law Society Finals at the Guildford campus in 1976, his solicitor and accreditation dates, his judicial role and his co-founding of The International Family Law Group.
• Professor David Hodson OBE MICArb University of Queensland law school profile describing Hodson as an English solicitor, mediator, family arbitrator and Deputy District Judge, with his OBE, visiting and honorary professorships, and publications.
• David Hodson - Infinity Family Law Career page setting out Hodson's qualifications, judicial and mediation appointments, professional achievements and career history from 1976 onwards.