Sarah is a senior associate in the specialist Children team. She joined Stephens Scown in 2022.

Sarah qualified as a solicitor in 2002 and is a member of the Children Panel and has Higher Rights of Audience (Civil).

Sarah has particular experience in complex public and private law children matters, including care proceedings where she has represented parents, relatives, interveners, guardians, children directly and local authorities.

She has represented parties in cases involving extremely serious allegations, including non-accidental injury, sexual abuse, forced marriage and radicalisation.

She has experience of public law proceedings involving international work and of wardship. Within private law proceedings, Sarah has very broad experience, including applications to remove children from the jurisdiction, and of international adoption and surrogacy.

Her experience includes:

• Representing the respondent mother in an appeal before the Court of Appeal against an order for specialist assessment arising from concerns about radicalisation.
• Responding a party in complex wardship proceedings, trying to achieve the return of 7 children from Lebanon.
• Acting for prospective adopters in international adoptions from non-Hague countries.
• Acting for applicant grandparents in an appeal to the Court of Appeal against a decision to grant a Special Guardianship Order rather than an Adoption Order.
• Acting for a party in an application for a Parental Order in which the commissioning parents were Israeli nationals and the surrogate and her husband were US citizens.
• Acting for a party in complex long running care and linked private law proceedings, involving very high net worth individuals and assessment with the potential of placement in Bangladesh.
• Acting in a number of cases which led to children being placed or relocating overseas.

Reported cases:

• Re A (Children) [2020]EWCA Civ 586
• Essex County Council and A, S & L [2019] EWFC73
• I (Children: Child Assessment Order) [2020] EWCA Civ281
• Re Q [2020] EWHC 1109 (Fam)
• Re T (A Child: Refusal of adoption) [2020] EWCACiv797

Outside of work Sarah enjoys exploring the beautiful Devon countryside, running, reading and music.