Janna Lawley

Call:2002

Introduction and Contact details

Janna specialises in all work relating to family law with a particular emphasis on private law children proceedings in which she regularly acts for parents and children from the Family Proceedings Court to the High Court and further on appeal. She also advises and represents ancillary relief clients of all levels from small asset to high net worth cases.
 
Janna always empathises with her clients' situation; while she favours a conciliatory approach, she is a tough advocate when required. Her emphasis is on high client care from the receipt of a brief until the conclusion of the case.

Janna lives in Surrey with her husband and her cat.

Tel:  020 7242 2523 (switchboard)
Fax: 020 7691 1234
Email: janna.lawley@hardwicke.co.uk

Property and Private Client

 Janna specialises in all work relating to family law with a particular emphasis on private law children proceedings. She also regularly advises and represents ancillary relief clients of all levels from small asset to high net worth cases.

Family – Children

 Janna’s practice includes acting for applicants, respondents and r9(5) guardians in applications for residence; contact; specific issue; prohibited steps; parental responsibility; leave to remove from the jurisdiction and DNA testing. She has particular experience involving parents with mental health issues including expert psychological and psychiatric evidence. She also has represented a number of parents in applications under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989.

Recent work

• Obtaining a High Court declaration of parentage for a child whose Father had died prior to his birth and accordingly the Registrar of Births would not include his Father’s details on the birth certificate
• Acting for the applicant in an application to move within the jurisdiction where the parents had a shared residence order
• Representing the respondent in an application for leave to remove the children to Australia resulting in the successful denial of the application
• Acting for a parent in s8 proceedings where there was a conflict of jurisdiction between England and Scotland
• Successfully obtaining a residence order in favour of a parent who had no right to remain in the UK and with whom the child had not lived for 5 years

Family – Breakdown and Finance

Janna’s practice includes defended divorces and all forms of ancillary relief involving a wide range of assets. Her experience encompasses both long and short marriages, dissipation of assets, immigration issues, jurisdictional questions, agreements and their subsequent effect, and injunctive proceedings.

Recent work

• Representing a Wife in an application for ancillary relief in circumstances where there were significant capital assets but the parties had divorced 18 years prior to the application and the Husband had remarried twice
• Acting in an ancillary relief where there was no capital but it was alleged that one party had hidden several hundred thousands pounds worth of assets
•  Representing a party in ancillary relief where the marriage only lasted 1 year but they had cohabited for the prior 19 years

Public law

Janna specialises in all work relating to family law with particular experience in care proceedings.

Care and Adoption

Janna’s practice includes representing parents and children/guardians from the first contested interim care order application up to the final hearing. Her experience includes cases involving domestic violence, neglect, mental health problems, substance abuse, travelling families, non-accidental harm and immigration issues. She also has considerable experience of acting for parents in placement order and adoption applications.

Recent work

• Acting for a grandmother in an application for special guardianship in response to care proceedings where she already had a number of other children placed in her care
• Acting for a father in care proceedings where he had committed incest with his daughter and thus the subject children were also his grandchildren
• Acting for parent with severe learning difficulties in circumstances where the child was removed at birth