Samantha advises clients on all aspects of children law. She handles cases in an empathetic yet practical manner. She has been working in this area of law since 1994 and has been a member of the Law Society’s Children Panel since 1998. She is a Resolution accredited specialist (in public law children, private law children and adoption).

Samantha has Higher Courts (Civil Proceedings) advocacy rights and is an experienced advocate, representing children, parents and family members in court.

Main areas of work include:

• in care proceedings acting for parents, children (directly and through their guardian) and family members, often acting for vulnerable clients who are supported by intermediaries. She is experienced in cases concerning deprivation of liberty and the challenges that sometimes arise with teenage children who have been adopted
• complex wardship cases
• family creation, surrogacy and parental orders and she has been involved in a number of cases where errors in the actions of fertility clinics have led to difficulties with legal parentage, resulting in court applications for declarations of parentage
• international surrogacy cases including two involving Iran
• advising foster carers who wish to take on the long term care of the children in their care
• domestic adoption including step-parent adoption and adopting children from care and negotiating support packages
• international adoption, with particular expertise in adoptions to the US from the UK
• advising parents and family members in cases concerning child arrangements and any aspect of a child's upbringing where there is a disagreement, for example where one parent wishes to take a child abroad to live, or where a parent wishes to change the child's name or school or take the child for a medical operation or course of treatment
• advising kinship carers who are caring for children in their family so that they get the right legal status and the right support package

• In the matter of A (A Child) (FC) - The Supreme Court: concerning a vulnerable witness 

• AB (Foreign Surrogacy -Children Out of The Jurisdiction) [2019] EWFC 22 (22 February 2019) (bailii.org): international surrogacy/parental orders involving children from Iran

• Re S (A Child) & Anor (s 20 Accommodation) - Find case law (nationalarchives.gov.uk): Court of Appeal decision regarding the use of section 20 Children Act 1989 for long term placements 

• Member of Resolution (formerly the Solicitors' Family Law Association) and active member of Resolution’s Legal Aid Committee
• Accredited to the Law Society's Children Panel since 1998
• Member of the ALC (Association of Lawyers for Children)