Family and Child Care

Ravi Kaur Mahey is a solicitor-advocate and director within the family and child care departments at Duncan Lewis Solicitors. She is recognised as a leading lawyer in her field, having specialised in children law for over 17 years.

Ravi specialises and litigates in all areas of children law, particularly public law cases where she acts for children themselves through their guardians. She also represents parents in adoption and child abduction matters. She has developed a specialism in acting for the victims of forced marriages, abandoned spouses, honour based violence, and female genital mutilation (FGM).

Ravi has extensive experience in handling care proceedings. She has been involved in a number of complex medical cases involving allegations of 'baby shaking', non-accidental injuries, attempted murder and factitious illness syndrome. She represents adults seeking to adopt, regularly receiving referrals from local authorities to act for adopters. She is a keen advocate having represented adults and children in the county and High Court.

Her most notable cases include a case concerning four children, and their mother. The family entered the UK with diplomatic rights and privileges arising from the mother's employment. There were two key issues in the case; the first concerned the court’s jurisdiction to make final care orders in respect of the children if those children continued to have diplomatic immunity. The second consisted of classic welfare issues in children public law proceedings which require threshold criteria to be satisfied. Following intensive legal work, the court further concluded it is in the best interests of the children to return to the care of their mother following a period of rehabilitation managed by the local authority. 

She was also the lead solicitor in the case of X (A Child) (Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order : Restrictions on Travel) [2017] EWHC 2898 (Fam). The case concerned a young girl who was deemed to be at risk of FGM if she were to go to Egypt where he father was then residing. A full travel ban was placed on the child until she turned 16 however Ravi worked so that the child would be permitted to travel to Egypt for one week in order to facilitate contact with her father and build their relationship.

Throughout her practice, Ravi is committed to legal aid and to carrying out pro bono work. She has been instrumental in the running of a variety of pro bono clinics, collaborating with Women's Aid, Fathers Groups, MENCAP, and Chrysalis.. She is involved in setting up a national FGM clinic, working alongside FORWARD and Infringement, and frequently delivers training and workshops to various organisations. She was previously invited to advise the judiciary by sitting on the steering group committee to pilot the new Quad Borough system for South London Boroughs. 

Ravi’s hard work and commitment to her clients has been recognised by the Family Law Awards, and she was shortlisted for ‘Partner of the Year’ 2018. In 2019 she was Highly Commended by the LawWorks Pro Bono Awards for Best Contribution by and Individual. 

Ravi completed her LPC at the University of Birmingham and has an LLB (Hons) from the University of Nottingham Trent.