Family Law

Louisa is a recognised, leading expert who has pioneered the practice of fertility and family law in the UK. She has litigated many of the most important fertility and family law cases for modern families and won numerous changes and improvements to law and policy for parents, children and families. Louisa is founder of specialist fertility and family law firm Louisa Ghevaert Associates.

Louisa has a global specialist legal practice that spans more than two decades. It encompasses international and UK surrogacy, donor conception, fertility treatment law, posthumous conception, co-parenting and known donation, adoption, legal parentage and identity issues, acquisition and exercise of parental responsibility for children, fertility and family law and policy, LGBT family and parenting law, complex assisted reproduction disputes, children and family law disputes and international family law.

Louisa won a place on The Lawyer Hot 100 List 2018 (litigators section) for her ground-breaking legal work on milestone cases across the family, fertility and medical sectors, starting with the first UK case for overseas surrogacy in 2008, Re X and Y (Foreign Surrogacy) and in 2017 the first case to award damages for surrogacy following medical negligence, XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust. The Lawyer Hot 100 List 2018 recognised the significant national and international nature of Louisa’s legal practice, describing her 'as an influential figure when it comes to ensuring fertility laws are fit for purpose in the 21st century'.

Louisa holds membership of various national and international family and fertility sector organisations. She is a member of the national Egg Donation Stakeholder Advisory Group led by De Montfort University.  She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys and a Fellow of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Section of the American Bar Association. Louisa is also a member of Resolution (the national professional organisation for family lawyers in the UK). Louisa is a regular commentator in the media and is a highly regarded speaker on fertility, surrogacy and family law for modern families. 

Louisa has helped change and shape fertility and modern family law in the UK through her law and policy work. She was a member of the stakeholders’ Parliamentary strategy group concerned with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 and its associated regulations. She was an expert adviser to the HFEA’s Ethics and Law Advisory Committee, providing detailed legal comment to the Department of Health’s 2009 consultation on proposed draft surrogacy regulations, which won changes to the law on nationality in international surrogacy cases. She provided expert evidence to The Nuffield Council on donor conception law and policy in 2012. She provided expert evidence to The Hague on UK and international surrogacy law and policy in 2013. She was a member of the SUK Working Party on Surrogacy Law Reform 2014-2018 and a co-contributor to its first seminal report on surrogacy law, policy and practice in the UK in 2015. She also provided expert evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Surrogacy Law Reform in November 2018. Louisa also joined the Expert UK Surrogacy Consultation to help develop international Principles for the protection of the rights of the child in the context of surrogacy organised by Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB), British Association of Social Workers (BASW), the BASW Project Group on Assisted Reproduction (PROGAR) and International Social Service (ISS), (13 and 14 September 2019).

Louisa Ghevaert is a widely published author on fertility, surrogacy and modern family law issues in magazines and leading legal publications. She is a specialist contributor on surrogacy law in practitioner reference book The International Family Law Practice (Sixth Edition, Family Law). She is also a co-author of medical reference book Reducing Risk in Fertility Treatment (First Edition, April 2015) a leading resource for fertility clinicians, embryologists, nurses and counsellors.

Louisa has worked on numerous landmark fertility and surrogacy cases in the English High Court including: 

• Re X,Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] EWHC 198 (Fam)

• Whittington NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC14

• XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832

• Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18

• AB v CD, EF, GH & IL [2018] EWHC 1590 (Fam)

•  XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2017] EWHC 2318 (QB)

• In the matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case V) [2016] EWHC 2356 (Fam) 

• JP v LP & Ors [2014] EWHC 595 (Fam)

• Re C [2013] EWHC 2408 (Fam)

• Re IJ (Foreign Surrogacy Agreement) [2011] 2 FLR 646

• Re L (A Child) (Parental Order Foreign Surrogacy) [2010] 1 FLR 1423

• Re X & Y (Foreign Surrogacy) [2009] 1 FLR 733