AN East Lancashire solicitor has won a prestigious national award in recognition of excellence in family law.

Rachel Horman, a Director and Head of Family Law at Watson Ramsbottom Solicitors, won the Family Law Partner of the Year Award at the National Family Law Awards ceremony held in London.

Her firm has offices in Darwen, Blackburn, Great Harwood and Accrington.

Rachel said her success was down to "the work that our family law team do every day of the week to a consistently high standard".

She said: "We have an extremely talented and highly qualified team of family lawyers dealing with all areas of family law, from divorce cases and finances, to the most complex work involving children and my own specialist areas of domestic abuse, stalking and forced marriage which includes dealing with very dangerous offenders and high risk cases including attempted murder, rape and GBH.

"The work we do genuinely changes people's lives and this award demonstrates that we are moving closer to our stated ambition of being the family law team of choice for people in East Lancashire and beyond."

Having won the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award in 2012 and become an established media commentator, Rachel also sits on two All Party Parliamentary Groups on Domestic Violence and Stalking and Harassment, the areas in which she specialises, and is at the forefront of campaigning to criminalise emotional abuse and coercive control.

She was recently appointed as a Director of Paladin the National Stalking Advocacy Service who assist high risk victims of stalking across England and Wales and campaign for domestic violence law reform.

Rachel also maintains a successful Domestic Abuse Lawyer blog at www.rachelhorman.co.uk