Helping to free a mother accused of killing her children would be enough for most lawyers, but Marilyn Stowe, above, wants more. JO HAYWOOD finds out what drives her...

Busy is not a big enough word to describe Marilyn Stowe's life. Not only is she one of the country's premier divorce lawyers, she is also chief examiner of the Law Society's Family Law Panel, she has written two books, she is a wife and mother, she does a regular phone-in slot on Radio York, she is training for the London Marathon and is the driving force behind a new after-care service for divorcees which meets in York tomorrow night.

Oh, and in her spare time she managed to find the vital piece of medical evidence that recently freed solicitor Sally Clark, jailed for life for killing her two sons.

"I just did not think she was guilty," says Marilyn, who started her practice, Grahame Stowe Bateson, with her husband Grahame and their colleague Arthur Bateson in 1982. "I wrote to the Clarks' website and offered to help. Steve (Sally's husband) did not know where to go or what to do. He mentioned that the hospital had never provided full medical reports, even though he knew blood tests had been done. I offered my investigative skills and immediately got to work."

The first person she interviewed - a health centre nurse - said she had taken a phone call from Sally on the day of her second son's death. She was in obvious distress and was worried because the breathing monitor he was wearing kept going off.

"I asked her why she hadn't told anyone about this call," says Marilyn. "She said no one had ever asked her."

The doctors who prepared the babies' medical records heard that she was investigating and requested a meeting. They eventually agreed to hand over all their documents, even going so far as to flag up the vital evidence for her. Why?

"I don't know why they co-operated with me and no one else," says Marilyn. "Maybe it was because I made it clear I would never give up until I had the truth. I think they knew I meant it."

The blood test records were pivotal in the Court of Appeal's decision to free Sally after three years in prison. Marilyn was literally floored by the news.

"The Clarks' solicitor phoned and said 'how does it feel to be the person who got Sally Clark out of prison?'," she says. "I just sat down on the floor in the middle of the office. I couldn't believe we had done it.

"Then I got another phone call to say Sally had thanked me outside the court. You've made it, they said, it was reported on Radio 2. I just started crying."

Marilyn has had several letters from the Clarks since their incredible victory, but she has not spoken to Sally, who she describes as being "terribly damaged" by her experiences. She also received a letter from the Law Society offering her a monetary award for the pro bono work she did on the case, but she turned it down.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not a do-gooder," she adds. "The Sally Clark case was great for us in terms of PR, but it was never really about money. An award would have undermined the work; it would have lessened it somehow."

Marilyn has come a long way since she first set up practice in a tiny, converted shoe shop in East Leeds 21 years ago. Her aim then was to fill her days until she and Grahame had the large family they both wanted. But she soon found she had a flair for divorce cases - big money cases at that - and the large family was scaled down to one son, Ben, now 14.

"It was tough when Ben was little," she says. "There was one occasion when he was up all night before I was due to go to a very big meeting at a posh firm in Leeds. I dashed in at the last minute, apologising for being late. A very smug looking man said 'you're not late my dear, you're early - the meeting is tomorrow'.

"He obviously had not been up all night with a child; he probably never had been and never would be. I swore I would get him, and I did. I won my case."

Marilyn is an ambitious litigator. She enjoys going to court and arguing her case, and she relishes the competitive nature of her job.

"When I was at school, people said I would make a good actress, but my parents had other ideas," she said. "Being a lawyer is like being on the stage. You have to believe what you are saying and get your message across clearly. You also have to want to win."

Despite her aggressively positive attitude, she was still surprised to be offered the job of chief examiner on the Law Society's Family Law Panel in 1999, overseeing a team of 40 accreditation assessors.

"I never thought they would go for a woman from Yorkshire over a pinstriped man from London," she says. "But the Law Society is actually very proactive when it comes to equality."

Not content, however, with just the two jobs, or four if you count her sidelines as author and radio broadcaster, Marilyn has now launched another major project - Chrysalis, a scheme designed to offer practical and professional support to people affected by divorce. The first meeting was held in Halifax in January; the second is being held in York tomorrow.

"When a divorce is finalised and it's all over, that's usually when the stress really hits people," Marilyn explains. "I see Chrysalis as an after-care service."

The meetings are low key and informal. They are an opportunity for people to talk and ask questions.

"Our aim is to give people encouragement, whether they were divorced yesterday, last month or 20 years ago, and to send them out with a more positive attitude than when they arrived."

And if that sounds suspiciously like more do-gooding, don't be fooled. Marilyn does not do touchy-feely.

"Yes, this is our way of giving something back," she said. "And yes, I would like us to be seen as caring - not something lawyers are usually associated with.

"But at the end of the day it is bloody good PR for the firm."

Updated: 10:21 Wednesday, March 19, 2003