We advise children (either directly or through their court-appointed Guardians), parents, family members or potential adopters on the legal issues related to adoption.
We can provide specialist advice on a range of matters including:
- Adopting a child from care
- Adopting a child within the family
- Adopting a child in this country who has been brought into the country from overseas
- Contact with children about to be adopted or who have been adopted
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Negotiating with social services about support services for children and their adoptive carers where children are about to be or have been adopted.
Our approach and expertise
- We treat the welfare of your children as the most important issue. Our aim is to help you make arrangements with the minimum of distress to the children and the family as a whole
- We have a long-standing reputation in the field of adoption work.
- We understand how important it is to secure the support services you will need if you are adopting children who have had a difficult childhood
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We have built excellent professional relationships with the courts, judges, solicitors, barristers, experts and social workers. Much of our work is referred to us by professionals in the field, particularly solicitors and barristers.
Our team
- All the solicitors in our team are members of either Resolution (the professional support organisation for family lawyers) or the Association of Lawyers for Children, or both. Many of the solicitors in the team undertake committee work for Resolution.
- We are members of NAGALRO (National Association of Guardians ad litem and Reporting Officers) and the Grandparents' Association
- Partner Samantha Little was Family Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2008. She is an accredited trainer for Resolution, and sits on the Surrey Family Justice Council, whose aim is to promote inter-disciplinary training for professionals working in family justice. Peer group review Chambers says: "[Samantha] stands out for her expertise in the whole range of child-related work. "She is totally dedicated to her clients," say observers, who praise the sympathetic approach she brings to her work."
- Four of our solicitors are members of the Law Society Children Panel (Sarah Richardson, Samantha Little, John Hackett, Joy Levi)