Sarah Lucy Cooper - Barrister Profile

Sarah Lucy Cooper

CALL DATE

1993 Inner Temple

EDUCATION/ QUALIFICATIONS

Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls

Durham University (BA Politics & Philosophy)

University of Westminster Diploma in Law (Commendation)

King’s College, London – Spanish Legal System

PRACTICE

Family law - in particular ancillary relief

Particular interest in cases with a conflict of laws dimension, especially those involving Spain and Latin America. Experience of cases involving assets held abroad, witnesses abroad, Brussels II R, the validity of foreign divorces, permission to remove from the jurisdiction and Hague Convention cases

Property - frequent trial experience of cohabitation claims under TLATA , Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act claims and other general property work particularly leasehold enfranchisement claims

Personal Injury – foreign travel cases and foreign claimants

Employment –discrimination cases, disciplinary proceedings before professional bodies

EXPERIENCE

Having practised across a wide range of areas including PI, property and commercial, immigration, employment and some crime, this has led to an increasing specialisation in family law.

A particular feature of this mixed common law practice is the number of cases conducted involving either issues of conflicts of law or foreign litigants, frequently connected to either Spain or Latin America.

Instructions regularly received in Spanish and directly from Spanish lawyers.

A wide range of advocacy at all levels in a variety of different tribunals from the Privy Council to the Employment Tribunal.

Speaker at International Bar Association Business Law Conference, October 2001, Mexico

Trial observer for Amnesty International in Equatorial Guinea [September 2004 trial of alleged mercenaries, conducted in Spanish]

Basic knowledge of Spanish and Colombian law

Fluent Spanish – happy to conduct conferences or to attend proceedings in Spanish

Basic French

REPORTED CASES

Ramnarace v Lutchman [2001] UKPC 25, (2001) 1 WLR 1651 Privy Council [Adverse Possession]
Marston v Lewis (Nov 2004) [further expert evidence where joint expert evidence already adduced]

PUBLICATIONS

Various articles and reports on Colombian human rights including for the International Commission for Trade Union Rights March 2004, Counsel, Amnesty International etc

Articles:

Regular contributor to Family Law Week on international family law issues in particular connected with Spain and Latin America: