If anyone can secure a settlement between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, it is Sir Paul Coleridge.

That is the verdict of leading lawyers, who said yesterday that the judge charged with the unenviable task of “banging heads together” was also best qualified.

Jane Simpson, of the law firm Manches, which is a leading advocate of resolving divorce cases out of court, said that Mr Justice Coleridge was a “modernising judge” who went “where others fear to tread”.

Mr Justice Coleridge made legal history when his ruling resulted in the highest court award for a divorce case in legal history. Beverley Charman received £48 million when she divorced the insurance magnate John Charman.

Mr Justice Coleridge, 58, who is married with a daughter and two sons, went to the bench in 2000 after what one leading family lawyer last week described as a “glittering career.”

He studied at Cranleigh School and the College of Law, London and between 1985 and 1989 he was a legal adviser to Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, the late Swiss industrialist and art collector.

James Stewart, a family lawyer, said: “He is very robust, very bright. He was the silk of choice when he was at the Bar.”

The judge’s likes include Dorset, gardening and motorcycles.

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