Expert Witness Services: Manufacturing and Construction, Matrimonial Earning Capacity
Context
A leading international divorce law firm instructed Novo on behalf of the wife in financial remedy proceedings.
The husband had built a career in manufacturing and construction, gaining significant commercial and management experience. For the previous five years he had run his own consultancy business rather than working in a salaried role. The question was whether he could realistically return to employment, and at what level of pay.
Sector Complexity
Manufacturing and construction offer a broad range of commercial, operational and management roles. The harder question is how employers value consultancy experience.
Running a business shows commercial initiative, client relationship management and specialist expertise. Employers may still distinguish between consultancy assignments and recent experience of managing teams, budgets and operational performance inside an established organisation. Permanent employment, interim management and independent consultancy are also paid in different ways, and the assessment had to account for each.
Brief
Provide an independent assessment of the husband’s employment prospects and earning capacity: the types and seniority of roles he could realistically secure, the remuneration attached to them and the likely time needed to find work. The brief also covered whether he could keep earning through consultancy, and whether other arrangements could offer more.
Approach
Novo reviewed his employment history, management responsibilities, sector experience and five years of consultancy work, with particular attention to how well his commercial and management experience would transfer.
Research covered relevant opportunities across manufacturing, construction and related sectors, published salary benchmarks, recruitment market conditions and what employers expect when hiring experienced professionals into operational and commercial management roles. It also compared the route back into permanent employment with securing further consultancy or interim assignments.
Outputs
The report covered:
- Suitable opportunities in manufacturing, construction and related sectors
- The seniority of positions realistically achievable
- Indicative salary levels and potential additional remuneration
- The commercial value and transferability of his consultancy experience
- Income potential from continued consultancy or interim management
- Likely timescales to secure suitable employment
- Factors that could influence future earning capacity
Outcome
Novo’s assessment gave the wife’s legal advisers an independent, market-based view of the husband’s realistic employment prospects and potential remuneration.
Because it considered both salaried employment and continued consultancy, it supported a more informed view of his future earnings and gave a framework for evaluating earning capacity within the proceedings.
Find out more about our earning capacity assessments for divorce and financial remedy proceedings.
