Barristers
Lucy Cheetham
- Phone020 7427 5200
- Email[email protected]
- Profilewww.4pb.com
Work Department
Court of Protection - Vulnerable Adult; Private Children Law; Public Children Law
Position
Lucy is most well known as a specialist child protection barrister. She represents parties at all levels of court, often against leading counsel, in multi-day trials and has experience appearing in the Court of Appeal.
Her forensic and analytical approach to cases means that she is in demand in the most serious cases where there is complex medical evidence (infant death, fabricated or induced illness and non-accidental injury).
Earlier in her career, Lucy worked in the Court of Appeal as a Judicial Assistant to Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and to Sir Matthew Thorpe. She was the first family specialist to hold the appointment. She assisted the Advisory Committee which produced the Protocol for Judicial Case Management in Public Law Children Act Cases.
Lucy was a member of the Law Reform Committee of the Bar Council as a family specialist between 2007-2009. She was also the Secretary of the Committee for the Centre for Child and Family Law Reform from 2004 until 2014; the Centre is affiliated to City University, with representation from the judiciary, the legal profession and academia, and has undertaken projects on forced marriages, tax reform for co-habitees, youth justice, secure accommodation, and was recently instrumental in the introduction of Binding Arbitration in family law.
Public Children Law
Lucy’s main area of practice is public law children work. She has extensive experience in representing local authorities, parents and other family members, as well as guardians. Her specialism is complex care proceedings, especially those involving contested allegations of serious inflicted injuries, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. She has built a reputation for her aptitude in forensic detail, together with her advocacy skills, whilst retaining humanity in her approach to such cases.
Private Children Law
Lucy primarily represents guardians in private law cases in which children are separately represented, often when the case is on the cusp of public law proceedings. She is accomplished in managing disputes between parents with sensitivity, but also in ensuring that the child’s voice is not lost in the midst of conflict between their parents.
Court of Protection
Lucy has been involved in the Court of Protection primarily in the context of its intersection with care proceedings, representing local authorities and parents of vulnerable young people as they reach adulthood. She has also undertaken cases involving both financial and contact issues in the Court of Protection.
Career
Year of Call: 1999
Memberships
Family Law Bar Association Gray’s Inn Association of Lawyers for Children
Education
BA (Hons) (Cantab) – First Class Bateman Scholarship – Trinity Hall, Cambridge Kitty Crawley Prize for History – Trinity Hall, Cambridge College of Law (Diploma in Law) Inns of Court School of Law (BVC)