Over 20 years ago, my life was painfully turned upside down as I began to navigate the ruthless and costly world of high-stakes divorce as depicted in Sky Atlantic/HBO’s new legal A-list divorce drama, War about the expensive split between a caddish tech billionaire, Morgan Henderson (Dominic West) and his high-maintenance and scheming actress-model wife, Carla Duval (Sienna Miller). After entrapping her husband with ‘selfie’ evidence (that would not, in fact, be admissible in court), her instructions to her lawyers are: ‘You take this photo, you take this case, and you take him for every f**ing penny he has – and he’s got quite a few’.  

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But having watched the first episode – the next airs today – I found the divorce-of the-century drama enjoyable but unrealistic. For a dash of realism, try finding yourself in the middle of a divorce storm when two rival family law firms go head-to-head, with all the ‘filthy’ tactics imaginable. I would regularly get what’s known as the ‘Friday email’ from my wife’s lawyers, sent around 5.30pm so that you had to stew and stress all weekend. Being served divorce papers at home during Sunday lunch is another favourite ploy.  

The case puts an old-establishment law firm (not unlike Farrer & Co) up against an upstart boutique outfit (run by a husband and wife). The blue-chip firm........

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