Recommended Legal Firms

Sarah Brown – Ridley & Hall

Sarah Brown is a Partner and Team Leader of the Public Law team at Ridley & Hall, working specifically within the firm’s Adoption and Kinship Care team. She has particular expertise in the adoption process and adoption disruption, alongside experience in care proceedings, child protection and Special Guardianship Orders. Her practice therefore brings a strong understanding of the legal and practical challenges facing adoptive families, children and kinship carers, including when permanence arrangements become difficult or break down. (Ridley&Hall Solicitors)

Nigel Priestley MBE – Ridley & Hall

Nigel Priestley is a Senior Partner and highly experienced community care and adoption specialist, with extensive expertise in kinship care, adoption breakdown and care proceedings. He is a member of the Children’s Panel and has represented children, parents, grandparents and kinship carers. Nigel has also been recognised nationally for his work in this field, including receiving the Kinship Care Legal Champion Award and an MBE for services to children and families. His experience includes challenging local authority decisions and securing appropriate financial and practical support for kinship carers and adoptive families. (Ridley&Hall Solicitors)

Damien Dobson – JWP Solicitors

Damien Dobson is a Solicitor and Director at JWP Solicitors with a background spanning Family, Childcare and Adult Care law. He is an accredited member of the Law Society Children Panel and represents local authorities, children, parents and grandparents in the Family and High Courts. Of particular relevance to adoption and permanence, Damien is a specialist in adoption breakdown, frequently representing adoptive parents where a placement has experienced significant difficulties and care proceedings become necessary. His wider childcare experience gives him a strong understanding of the interaction between adoption, permanence, family relationships and the care system. (JWP Solicitors)

Emily Boardman – Boardman, Hawkins & Osborne LLP

Emily Boardman is a founding partner and highly experienced public children and adoption solicitor, with particular expertise in complex cases involving children and social services. She specialises in private and non-agency adoptions, prospective adopters, care proceedings and cases involving social services, and also advises fostering and adoption agencies. Her reported cases demonstrate significant expertise in complex adoption and permanence issues, including adoption breakdown, challenges to adoption and placement orders, post-adoption issues and cases involving kinship carers. She represented a great-aunt successfully in a Court of Appeal case concerning the placement of her great-nephew, and has recently represented an adoptive parent through the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in a case concerning the revocation of adoption orders. (bholegal.co.uk)

Gary Walker is a Partner at Enable Law