Duncan Lewis Solicitors

Family and Child Care

Adeeba Naseem is a director of family and child care at Duncan Lewis Solicitors.

Adeeba’s area of expertise is in handling international and domestic family law proceedings at the high court, in particular child abduction, surrogacy, adoption, and international adoption cases. She regularly deals with separation, divorce, and both domestic and international financial proceedings, including pre and post-nuptial agreements and rare cases involving the Queen’s Proctor.

Recent cases include B (A Child : Abduction: Article 13(B)) [2020] EWCA Civ 1057 an international child abduction case, and LC (A Child - Placement Order) [2020] EWCA Civ 787 a child placement order.

In child abduction matters, Adeeba regularly issues family proceedings both domestically and in different jurisdictions outside the UK; she liaises with organisations and authorities in other jurisdictions to ensure vulnerable children are successfully returned to their home country. She has handled a significant number of cases worldwide including the return of children abducted to Pakistan and Jamaica, two highly complex cases as neither country’s accession to the Hague Convention is ratified.

Adeeba aslo has expertise in surrogacy cases when couples have a surrogate mother in England or another country to carry their child and looks to secure parental orders to ensure the couple are legally recognised as the child’s parents.

Adeeba handles both privately and publicly funded matters and has undertaken advocacy at the high courts and lower courts UK-wide. Her broad client base includes vulnerable victims of abuse, international high-profile clients, and cases with a public interest due to concerns of extremist links or children’s medical conditions. She works closely with a number of non-profit organisations that support and advise vulnerable members of their communities. These include children centres, food banks and charities and she often give talks and pro bono advice at domestic violence organisations focussing on securing protection through emergency injunctions for victims of abuse.

Adeeba has previous experience practicing both immigration and criminal law and has undertaken her own advocacy at the Magistrates’ Court and at the Crown Court.

Adeeba qualified as a solicitor in 2005 and has been a partner-level director at Duncan Lewis Solicitors since 2012.

Adeeba speaks fluent Urdu and Punjabi.

Adeeba is a member of the Law Society's Children Panel and the Association of Lawyers for Children and Reunite International. She is also a member of Reunite International.

Adeeba obtained her LLB (Hons) from the University of Leeds and her LPC from Leeds Metropolitan University.