Rachael Shearmur
Senior Solicitor
Exeter & Okehampton
email | 01392 424242
Rachael read Law at Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor in November 1989, having completed her professional training in Exeter. Rachael has practiced as a Family specialist for over 30 years, primarily in Exeter but also in Bristol.
Rachael advises on all aspects of family breakdown including divorce, dissolution of civil partnerships and the ending of cohabitation arrangements. This includes financial matters (be it property, maintenance issues, pension sharing etc), child arrangements and domestic abuse. Rachael has also had significant experience in care cases following intervention by the Local Authority. Although Gilbert Stephens no longer undertakes publicly funded (legal aid) work, Rachael is able to advise and assist extended family members who may wish to offer support in caring for their grandchildren, nephews or nieces etc.
Family Law is not always about the breakdown of relationships and Rachael also advises on adoption, Parental Orders following assisted fertility treatment and surrogacy arrangements, pre- and post-nuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements, with particular emphasis on appropriate planning at the time of purchase of a joint property.
Rachael works closely with her colleagues in the Private Client team and the Conveyancing team to provide as comprehensive a service as possible in dealing with the issues which affect families and their intergenerational relationships.
Rachael was brought up in France and speaks fluent French and functional Spanish.
Outside the office Rachael sings with the Exeter Bach Choir and the choral quartet The Gallery Singers. She is a member of the Exeter Recorder Orchestra and a Trustee and founder member of Vive La Musique!, a small local registered charity which organises the Kenton Koncerts, the annual Teignmouth Classical Music Festival and regular small-scale concerts by professional musicians in a number of the local state primary schools. Rachael is also a keen cook and enjoys long-distance walking.
