Sarah is an Associate in the Family department.
She is a trusted advisor to her clients and has expertise in all aspects of Family law, including divorce/dissolution with high value financial disputes and complex financial remedy proceedings. She regularly advises on private law children matters, such as contact disputes, applications for specific issue orders and applications to remove children from and within the jurisdiction. Sarah also advises on international surrogacy and adoption; Court of Protection proceedings; and pre-nuptial, post-nuptial and civil partnership agreements.
She is a member of Resolution, an organisation which believes in a constructive, non-confrontational approach to family law matters and campaigns for improvements to the family justice system.
Sarah volunteers with the Social Mobility Business Partnership, a charitable organisation dedicated to broadening access to the legal and accountancy professions for secondary state school students from low income backgrounds, and she also mentors sixth form students who want to pursue a career in Law.
Key Experience
- Acting for high net worth individuals in both financial remedy and Children Act proceedings.
- Advising on complex financial remedy cases with jurisdiction disputes, allegations of non-disclosure and disclosure orders against third parties.
- Successfully obtaining and defending non-molestation order applications.
- Advising on financial provision for unmarried parents under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989.
- Representing clients in highly contentious litigation concerning their children's day to day arrangements, including: disputes about change of schools, the child's name, preventing a parent from removing children from the jurisdiction, external relocations, child care arrangements and Court of Protection proceedings.
- Successfully defending an application for permission to relocate a child from London to Dubai.
- Drafting and advising on the enforcement of pre/post nuptial, cohabitation and civil-partnership agreements, including agreements where assets are located in England and other jurisdictions.
- Representing clients in complex international surrogacy arrangements, which require a collaborative approach with the Immigration department.
Reported cases
Re D (A young man) [2020] EWCOP 1: representing the respondent father and step-mother in successfully defending the applicant mother's application for permission for a substantive contact application with her 20 year old son who has autism. This is the first reported case on the question of the test for permission under s.50 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
AP v APL:[2018] EWHC 2758 (Fam): Successfully representing the husband in high net worth financial remedy proceedings. There was an issue as to whether the significant loss in value of the husband's assets after a number of failed investments should be considered as "wilful dissipation". We succeeding in arguing that the wife could not take advantage of the husband's entrepreneurial abilities to share in any projects that were valuable, whilst not accepting liability in relation to those that were unsuccessful.
Wyatt v Vince [2015] UKSC 14: acting for the successful Appellant wife in financial remedy proceedings in the Supreme Court.
Career History
Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Solicitor, Mishcon de Reya
Trainee Solicitor, Mishcon de Reya
BPP Law School, LPC
Clare College: Cambridge University, Law