W·A
Wetherby Ashcombe
Family Office · Oxford
The Team

Three solicitors, one practice.

A senior-led office where each matter is known to every member of the firm.

Charlotte Wetherby

Senior Family Solicitor · Founding Partner

Charlotte read law at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, before training at a London family law boutique where she remained — as assistant, associate and, in time, partner — for the better part of twenty years. She returned to Oxford in 2018 to establish what became the Wetherby Ashcombe Family Office.

Her practice is built around high-net-worth divorce, private financial settlement, and the careful drafting of pre- and post-nuptial agreements. Many of her instructions involve trusts, inherited wealth, family businesses, and cross-border holdings — matters that ask as much of a solicitor's financial literacy as of their legal craft.

Charlotte is known to clients for her composure and to opponents for her quiet precision. She is a member of Resolution, accredited by the Law Society's Family Law Panel, and a trained collaborative lawyer.

Qualifications & Memberships

  • MA (Hons) Jurisprudence, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
  • Legal Practice Course, BPP London (Distinction)
  • Admitted as a Solicitor of England and Wales, 2001
  • Resolution — Member & Accredited Specialist (Complex Financial Remedy)
  • Law Society Family Law Panel
  • Collaborative Family Lawyer, Resolution-trained

Edward Ashcombe

Family Solicitor

Edward read History at Durham before converting to law and qualifying as a solicitor in Oxford. Before joining the office he spent several years with a regional private client firm, where he developed a quiet authority in matrimonial finance and the tax-sensitive separation of family businesses and inherited estates.

He is particularly engaged with cases involving entrepreneurs, academics, and landed families — the kinds of arrangements where a divorce touches not only spouses but also partnerships, trustees, and the next generation. His clients value the discretion and patience he brings to long-running financial work.

Outside the office Edward is a governor at an Oxfordshire school and a long-suffering supporter of the College Eight.

Qualifications & Memberships

  • BA (Hons) History, University of Durham
  • Graduate Diploma in Law, University of Law (Distinction)
  • Legal Practice Course, University of Law, Guildford
  • Admitted as a Solicitor of England and Wales, 2016
  • Resolution — Member
  • STEP affiliate, with focus on family / private client overlap

Imogen Bell

Junior Associate

Imogen read law at the University of Exeter and completed her Legal Practice Course in Bristol, before training with a small Oxfordshire practice where her contract was offered upon qualification. She joined Wetherby Ashcombe in 2024.

She supports Charlotte and Edward across the firm's instructions — disclosure exercises, court bundles, schedules of assets, and correspondence with clients and opposing solicitors. She has a particular interest in pensions on divorce, in the legal architecture of property portfolios, and in the increasingly subtle landscape of child maintenance arrangements.

Imogen is the first point of contact for many clients, and the calm, well-prepared presence behind a great deal of the firm's day-to-day work.

Qualifications & Memberships

  • LLB (Hons) Law, University of Exeter
  • Legal Practice Course, University of Law, Bristol
  • Admitted as a Solicitor of England and Wales, 2024
  • Junior Resolution — Member
  • Member, Oxford Junior Lawyers Division

Speak with the team directly.

Initial consultations are with a partner, in confidence, and without obligation.

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