St Ives Chambers

Natalie is a family law specialist, having completed a family law pupillage at a Midlands set, before returning to her West Midlands roots. She conducts work at all court levels.

Natalie is Public Access trained which enables her to accept instructions direct from clients.

Natalie prides herself on her ability to deal with clients in very difficult situations and is well-regarded for her attention to detail and thoroughness in preparation, often at short notice. She is sympathetic to the individual needs of her client and is dedicated to securing the best possible result for them. She aims to provide her client with practical, realistic advice.

Year of Call:  2009

Public Law Children

Natalie represents the local authority, parents and children, and is regularly found representing parents with mental health and learning difficulties, including experience of clients being represented via the Official Solicitor. Her experience includes cases involving non-accidental injuries, allegations of sexual abuse, neglect, domestic abuse, and drug and alcohol misuse. Natalie has experience of all stages of hearing, including interim hearings, multi-day contested final hearings, finding of fact hearings and appeals.

Private Law Children

Natalie undertakes work in private law children matters, from the first hearing through to contested final hearings. This includes cases involving where a child should live, who and how often the child should spend time with a person, and relocation cases both in the United Kingdom and abroad. She represents parents, grandparents and children under FPR rule 16.4, often in complex matters where both parents are litigants in person, and which have included issues such as parental alienation and inter-sibling sexual activity.

She is also instructed to represent clients who require injunctive relief, often at urgent hearings.

Recent Cases

Re B (Care Proceedings: Finding of Fact Hearing: Skull Fractures) [2017] EWFC B30. Read more here.

Natalie represented a father in public law proceedings where serious allegations of violence had been made against him. She was successful in ensuring no findings were made and the children were returned to his care.

In public law proceedings, Natalie successfully opposed an adoption plan in her representation of the mother, despite the plan being recommended by the local authority and supported by the children’s guardian.

Natalie appeared for a father in the Royal Courts of Justice opposing an application by the mother to take the child on holiday abroad. The court considered that there was a risk the child would not be returned, led by Natalie’s cross-examination, and refused the application for removal.

English

Midland Circuit

Family Law Bar Association

The Honourable Society of Inner Temple

LLB Hons Degree Law: First Class – University of Derby

Bar Vocational Course: Very Competent – College of Law