Child Care

Emma has over 24 years experience in Family and Children Law. She is a Solicitor Advocate and joined Duncan Lewis Solicitors in June 2010. She is Head of the Childcare Department at the Shepherds Bush office.

Emma qualified as a Solicitor in October 1993, was accredited to the Law Society Children Panel in 1999 and qualified as a Solicitor Advocate (Higher Courts, Civil) in March 2007. She is a childcare specialist who represents children, adults and family members at all levels of the Family Court system in both public and private law children matters, adoption and domestic abduction. Emma has extensive experience of complex injury and sexual abuse children cases and has developed skills in representing clients with mental health and learning difficulties.

Emma's current caseload predominantly consists of "heavyweight" public law childcare matters, involving multiple parties, complex evidential and legal issues and substantial medical evidence. Emma has experience of successfully handling cases that have attracted considerable media attention and others where she has represented the children which have led to a significant custodial sentence for the parent/s within subsequent criminal proceedings. In one of her most notable cases, Re: A (a Child) (2003), Emma represented a child that had suffered severe injuries at the hands of her father, including multiple factures. The child also suffered a heart attack after her breathing had been manually stopped. As a result, the child was left quadriplegic, epileptic, partially blind, requiring 24 hour care and a 50% chance of reaching the age of 18 years. The significant evidence obtained for the care proceedings led to the father's conviction of Grievous Bodily Harm in the criminal courts where he received a custodial sentence.

Emma has further had a number of her cases reported, most notably:- Re: D (Care: Natural Parent Presumption) [1999] 1 FLR 134 CA Shipton v Foulkes [2001] 3 FCR 306 CA Between 1996 and 1999 Emma regularly appeared on BBC Radio providing comment and debate on local and national family law issues that were relevant in the news at the time. She also had a weekly "Q&A" column in a newspaper providing information on all areas of family and matrimonial law including divorce, matrimonial finance, injunctions, children issues, children maintenance and cohabitation matters.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS - The Law Society - Resolution - Association of Lawyers for Children - National Association of Guardians Ad Litem and Reporting Officers - Solicitors Association of Higher Court Advocates - The Association of Women Solicitors INTERESTS Emma has an NVQ in scuba diving, having since reached the level of PADI IDC Staff Instructor and is a scuba diving Guinness World Record holder. She also has keen interests in travelling (having visited over 62 countries), running, cycling, and photography; providing photographs for her own photographic website.