Making a decision to give up your career, particularly after the birth of children, can often be both a choice and a sacrifice. So, what is the consequence on divorce where one spouse has put family ahead of promotions, ambition and earnings?

A recent decision in the High Court to award an additional £400,000 to a wife on divorce because she chose to stop working has brought this question to the fore. The parties had been married for 10 years. Both were London solicitors in their 40s and the wife, a Cambridge graduate, claimed that she had forsaken her prospects of becoming a partner to enable her husband's career to take preced...