Work’s rewards not the stuff of genius

A FORMER Lone Star Funds executive who asked judges to consider the nature of “genius” in a bid to win a bigger share of a $225-million (about R3-billion) fortune than his ex-wife, lost his divorce appeal at a London court this week.

Randy Work failed to convince a three-judge panel that his “special contribution” during their marriage meant he was entitled to a bigger share than the typical British practice of awarding a 50-50 division of marital assets.

Work and Mandy Gray, both American, were married for 20 years when they split.

A lower-court judge said in 2015 that the multimilliondollar estate should be equally split because while Work may have worked hard, the fortune was the result of “being in the right place at the right time, or benefiting from a period of boom”, not his professional brilliance.

The appeal judges agreed, saying use of the word “genius” was “unhelpful”, and that Work “failed to demonstrate that” the previous judge’s decision was wrong.

UK appeal judges have only ruled on the issue of special contribution a handful of times in the past 15 years as they have tried to draw a line between success of a “wholly exceptional nature” and people who have become very wealthy through ordinary means.

Work, who had asked for 61% of the assets, applied “groundbreaking methodologies” in the Japanese distressed debt market while running the fund’s office there, generating huge returns, according to the ruling.

He was “undoubtedly very successful” but he didn’t create Lone Star, the judges said, citing the 2015 ruling.

London courts have gained a reputation as being a more sympathetic place to play out high-stakes divorces as, generally speaking, judges order a 50-50 split of assets, giving equal weight to the work of a wealth creator and a homemaker.

However, when they do rule in favour of it, the numbers involved can be eye-catching.

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell relied on it in his 2005 divorce, in which a judge ruled his contribution was exceptional and awarded his ex-wife 40% of their £75million (about R1.2-billion) of assets.

And the next year, a judge gave the ex-wife of Axis Capital Holdings’ then CEO John Charman 36.5% of their £131-million estate on the basis that her contribution did not match his “extraordinary talent and energy”. Charman lost a later appeal for a larger share.

In 2014, a judge decided that Jamie Cooper-Hohn, the exwife of the Children’s Investment Fund Management UK founder Chris Hohn, should get 36% of their $1.5-billion marital estate. She did not appeal. —

A period of boom, not his professional brilliance