Duncan Lewis Solicitors is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Tooting based solicitor Sarah Jopling as a Director of Family & Childcare.
Sarah is a childcare expert and regularly represents parents, grandparents and extended family members in care proceedings. The nature of her cases has included dealing with clients with substance misuse issues, mental health difficulties, learning difficulties and other vulnerabilities. She has acted for children who have rare illnesses, and has represented parents and children in non-accidental injury cases and factitious illness cases. Sarah also has significant experience in Family Law. She was accredited as a Law Society Family Panel member in 2004, and in 2007 she became an accredited member of the Law Society Children Panel, enabling her to represent children as well as parents. In 2010 she became a Resolution accredited specialist in domestic violence and children work.
In addition to Sarah Jopling, Children Panel Members Frances Clare (Tooting office), Misbah Ali (Lewisham office), Kirsty Richards (Barnet office) and Kathy Walker (Croydon office) have all been appointed as Directors of Family & Childcare.
Duncan Lewis’ family and childcare team has been recognised as a leading practice by Legal 500 UK 2014. The department specialises in all aspects of family and private children law matters, with a particular family specialism in representing victims of domestic abuse and assisting in financial matrimonial matters relating to the breakdown of a marriage/relationship. The company holds a broad practice representing parents, family members and children through their children’s guardian in all children public law proceedings and are regularly appointed by Guardians to represent babies and young children in cases involving severe non-accidental injuries, fictitious illnesses and allegations of sexual abuse. The company’s childcare specialists have conduct in high profile international child abduction cases and regularly practice in inherent jurisdiction/forum disputes, international relocation cases, cross border care proceedings and wardship proceedings for the return of children taken out of the jurisdiction.
Duncan Lewis currently has 39 law society accredited children panel members that practice from offices across London and throughout the UK. The firm is one of only a small number of firms that are on the Lord Chancellor’s International Child Abduction & Contact Panel (ICACU). ICACU is responsible for administering Hague Convention (Child Abduction) proceedings work in England.