Robert Gilmour

Spear's Review

‘You can learn from others, but you can only be truly successful by finding your own voice,’ says Robert Gilmour, specialist family lawyer at SKO  in Edinburgh. He describes being inspired by his clients, saying that ‘the humour, resilience and generosity of people in the most trying of circumstances is a constant source of inspiration’.

Gilmour advises individuals in relation to all types of complex legal issues arising from adult relationship breakdown; parent/child relationships; and family relationships more generally. He is also an accredited family law mediator and arbitrator. One of the more challenging areas of Gilmour’s work arises from the increasingly global and highly mobile nature of HNW families, which makes for complex cases across multiple jurisdictions.

Adviser Profile

Robert is a Partner SKO Family Law Specialists and is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in Family Law and as a Family Mediator. He is also a Family Law Arbitrator. Feedback from clients has described Robert as "calm, considered in his opinion, wise, reliable, efficient and professional."

Robert's practice covers the full range of family law matters including divorce, dissolution, cohabitation claims, financial provision, residence and contact, specific issue orders and relocation. He has a wealth of courtroom experience, conducting proofs, debates and other contentious hearings for clients. He also regularly receives appointments from courts to act as a court reporter and curator ad litem in cases involving children and vulnerable adults.

Robert leads SKO's surrogacy and assisted reproduction team, and is widely recognised as the leading practitioner in this field in Scotland. He advises intended parents undergoing surrogacy journeys at home and overseas. He has been consulted by medical professionals and individuals in relation to Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act matters arising from the HFEA legal parenthood audit in 2014. He regularly writes on and provides commentary to the media on these subjects.

Robert is also recognised for particular expertise in cohabitation claims, having acted for the successful applicant in the ground breaking, and widely reported, Supreme Court case of Gow v Grant.

Robert is a very experienced mediator and has a busy practice both mediating alone and, as the only male accredited mediator in Edinburgh, co-mediating in cases where a gender balance is desired by clients.