Solicitor ignoring requests leading to financial loss

I have a question regarding the duty of a solicitor to follow instruction from me as a client.

Prior to my divorce Final Hearing, my wife's solicitor made a time-limited Without Prejudice offer for £350k cash settlement as a full and final offer. By email I asked my solicitor to contact her solicitor and try to negotiate this figure down to around £325k.

A day after the WP offer expired, my solicitor emailed me that he didn’t reply to my wife’s offer as he said, "the deadline had passed and that he didn’t think her solicitor was being serious". My solicitor made no effort to discuss my request with him prior to his unilaterally deciding to do nothing. I again raised this WP offer on a later Zoom call only to be shot down by both my solicitor & barrister.

At the FH the judge delivered the previously dismissed "left-field" outcome and awarded both the family home and a large part of my pension to my wife. The total amount awarded to her amounts to over £600k – around twice what my wife was originally willing to settle for.

By my solicitor not acting on my emailed instructions, I am substantially less well off than I would have been. I would really like to know if anyone feels I can seek financial redress, possibly through the ombudsman or by any other means?

Do you think my solicitor acted foolhardy at the FH with my wife pleading a needs-case given that in these situations the primary carer (my wife in this case) is nearly always awarded the former matrimonial home (which amounts to about £350k value in my case)?

Many Thanks

Financial settlement is about needs first.
It sounds like this was the basis for settlement. It is usually the more financially disadvantaged party who appears to benefit more, especially if they have responsibility for children. Without knowing the details of the case it is hard to comment on the outcome but it has been determined by a judge who is in possession of the facts of the case.

It also sounds like the WP proposal was way off what was fair. Even if you had agreed it, it's unlikely that you would have got it past a judge asked to approve a Consent Order.

Judges do have quite wide discretion within the law and it is not unknown for their decisions to be influenced by things like the way a case is presented or a witness behaves at a hearing.

Hadenoughnow