Simi Kalsi Ferguson (1976 to 2025)

Simi had a slightly unusual route to family law – after her law degree at the University of Nottingham, she completed a masters in corporate law.  However, during her training contract she discovered her love and passion for family law and cut her teeth on some quite difficult and challenging cases, always doing her own advocacy, to build her experience and confidence as a junior lawyer, and never felt intimidated. She also understood the importance of protecting women and safeguarding children from her experiences at that time, very much a forerunner to the way in which we now understand and deal with domestic abuse following its redefinition in the 2020s.

After completing her training and education, Simi joined Howell Jones in 2005 as a family law solicitor and quickly made a strong impression within her firm and the family law community as a whole.

Simi was swiftly promoted to partner, and then made Head of Team in 2011, with the accolade of becoming the youngest Head of Team at Howell Jones at the age of 34, a testament to her determination and ambition. In that role, she worked diligently on a wide range of cases, including for HNW individuals on complex financial remedies as well as children matters. She was very much liked and respected by her clients, contacts and referrers alike for her personable, empathic and compassionate manner.

Simi put her unique stamp on the team at Howell Jones, leading with style, steel and charisma. She was an enthusiastic mentor and instrumental in training junior lawyers and trainees in family law, and that remains a big part of her professional legacy.

Simi was a pioneer in her field, always finding strings to add to her bow; she became one of the youngest qualified collaboratively trained lawyers and latterly a mediator, infusing her work always with her warmth and charm, leading to many of her clients recommending her to others, and staying in touch with Simi as they built new lives, after Simi’s help. Fully invested in non-court dispute resolution, she was very much a problem-solver, embodying the spirit of the Resolution Code of Practice and understood the importance of adding value when providing legal advice.

She was a pleasure to work with in collaborative cases, and very much an enthusiastic member of the family law community at the height of collaborative law, embracing a busy and active POD based in Central London, as well as sitting on the Surrey Resolution Committee.

Simi simultaneously sparkled and was a force to be reckoned with, bringing a sense of glamour as well as assertiveness to the role.  She was unforgettable.

Family values were always really important to Simi. Her biggest supporters were her endlessly proud parents, Mrs Sukhvinder Kalsi and Dr Basant Kalsi, her sister, Krista, and her beloved cousin Mr Vinay Kalsi, who were always by her side, and who encouraged and supported Simi to reach her dream of becoming a lawyer.

Simi married her wonderful husband, Mark Ferguson, in 2015 and welcomed their three children, Rowan in 2015, Chiara in 2017 and Remy in 2019.  Despite Simi’s love and passion for the law, she found her true life’s calling in her children and devoted the remainder of her life to raising them.

Simi was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, and with her usual steely and unbridled determination and fortitude, fought for five years, whilst juggling motherhood and her unwavering resolve to provide her precious children with lifelong memories and experiences.

Simi passed away in November 2025.  Simi’s legacy lives on in the lawyers she trained and mentored, those that she worked with in the family law community, and most importantly, in her three wonderful children.

Following her passing, a website has been set up dedicated to her memory to enable friends and family to pay tribute by leaving messages and donating to Cancer Research UK: https://simikalsiferguson.muchloved.com/. Our enduring memory of this magnificent person is captured in those tributes. She was much loved and will always be remembered.