2020-2017
Represented family members applying to revoke care, placement and adoption orders. The case concerned whether relatives had been adequately assessed before final orders were made. It engaged the high threshold for setting aside adoption-related orders.
C (A Child: Parental Order & Child Arrangements Order) [2020] EWHC 2474 (Fam) and C (A Child: Parental Order & Child Arrangements Order) [2020] EWHC 2141 (Fam)
Appeared for the local authority in unusual surrogacy proceedings. A child had been born through a surrogacy arrangement and the wife had then arranged a further surrogacy without the husband’s knowledge or consent.
Represented the mother in an application for an FGM Protection Order involving risk in Nigeria, highlighting the intersection of family protection and insecure immigration status.
Re A (A child) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order Application) (Rev 1) [2020] EWHC 323, Re A (A Child) (Rev 1) [2020] EWCA Civ 731 and Re A (A Child: Female Genital Mutilation: Asylum) [2019] EWHC 2475
The court held that the family court could not prevent removal by the Home Secretary but must still assess FGM risk, providing guidance on the overlap with asylum law. At final hearing, it found a significant risk of FGM if the child were returned to Bahrain or Sudan and extended the FGMPO. Read more in the Guardian 10/07/2020 and the Guardian 03/07/2020.
Represented the mother in proceedings on a child’s travel to Egypt amid alleged FGM risk; the court permitted a short trip and gave guidance on relevant factors. Read more in Local Government Lawyer.
Successfully appealed a child arrangements order where contact provisions had been wrongly placed in recitals rather than the operative order.
Appeared for parents of a child at risk of FGM abroad; the court held that FGM Protection Order applications should generally follow exhaustion of immigration appeals, giving key case management guidance. Read more in Counsel.
Represented private foster carers in public law fact-finding proceedings, securing findings of abandonment and breaches of private fostering duties by the local authority, with guidance on its responsibilities.
Acted for the appellant in a nullity appeal based on polygamy, addressing overseas marriage validity, proof of marriage and expert evidence; a notable decision in international family law.
Appeared in a Privy Council appeal concerning personal injury allegedly caused by hydrocarbon fumes from an oil well; the appeal succeeded and the Court of Appeal’s decision was set aside.