Leading UK fertility and family law expert Louisa Ghevaert is to head up a specialist Fertility and Parenting Law Team at Michelmores LLP. Louisa joins the firm from Porter Dodson as a partner, bringing Michelmores’ partner headcount to 58.
Louisa’s award winning, innovative and pioneering practice includes international and UK surrogacy, donor conception, co-parenting, fertility treatment law, inter-country adoption and complex children, parenting and family law disputes.
Louisa has litigated some of the most important UK fertility law cases. She is ranked as a leading expert in her field by Chambers & Partners UK and Legal 500 UK and has been a member of the Law Society Family Panel since 2006. Louisa’s cutting-edge legal practice was highly commended at the Law Society Excellence Awards 2013 in the Category of Business Development and Innovation. Louisa was
shortlisted at the Family Law Awards 2013 in the Category of Most Innovative Family Lawyer of the Year. She was also named The Times Lawyer of the Week (2009).
Louisa is a specialist contributor on surrogacy law within the leading practitioner textbook,
The International Family Law Practice. Louisa is an expert panel member for magazine Pink Parenting and a respected author in legal journals
Family Law and
International Family Law. Louisa regularly lectures nationally and internationally on fertility and parenting law and she provides specialist commentary on television, radio and in the national press. She was previously a member of the stakeholders’ Parliamentary strategy group concerned with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008.
Louisa will be joined by Rachel Cook, a leading authority on Adoption and Children Law, who is returning to Michelmores after a period of consultancy. Rachel’s specialist expertise will bring added depth to the fertility and parenting law team.
Rachel is a nationally elected member of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering Legal Group Advisory Committee, member of the Department of Education Adoption Stakeholder Group, an Independent Panel Chair of a Local Authority Adoption Agency and a trustee to a large Voluntary Adoption Agency. She was previously an Associate Lecturer at the University of Plymouth in Family Law where she won an award in 2013 for her innovative teaching.
Simon Thomas, Head of Michelmores Family Team, said:
'Louisa and Rachel are both considered to be leaders in their field by the leading legal directories. They bring unparalleled experience and expertise to the practice of fertility, parenting, surrogacy and adoption law creating a team that will be a legal powerhouse in this highly specialist area.'
