Alison Meacher > Gatehouse Chambers > London, England > Barrister Profile

Alison Meacher

+44 (0)20 7242 2523 alison.meacher@gatehouselaw.co.uk View profile

Position

Alison’s practice is focussed on vulnerable and elderly clients and she has tailored her practice to meet the wide-ranging needs of her clients and those who provide them with services. She is an accredited Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) with the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

Her practice includes validity of wills, intestacy, inheritance act claims, removal/appointment of executors, deputies or attorneys, trusts of land claims (TLATA), administration of trusts and estates, prevention and recovery after financial abuse, Statutory Wills, care home charges, NHS CHC funding, adult community care, mental capacity law, mental health law, forced marriages, cross-border disputes, social housing, healthcare law, human rights, safeguarding, social welfare entitlement, discrimination, consumer rights and general public law.

Alison is frequently instructed in complex and or hybrid cases in the Court of Protection, the Business and Property Court and Family Division.  She is also happy to represent clients in all forms of ADR setting, formal and informal.

She has a passion for and detailed understanding of the law, guidance and policy that affects her clients and is able to provide specialist advice and representation. She is a robust advocate when in the courtroom and negotiating outside court, yet possesses the patience and compassion needed to discuss difficult subject areas with family members and litigants in persons with sensitivity.

Alison’s expertise in her fields of practice is reflected by her recommendations as a leading junior in the latest editions of both the Legal 500 (Court of Protection & Community Care, Civil Liberties & Human Rights and Social Housing) and Chambers UK (Court of Protection: Health and Welfare, Court of Protection; Property and Affairs as well as social housing).

She is Chair of the Court of Protection Practitioner’s Association (CoPPA) London Region, and sits as a Recorder (Family) and Deputy District Judge.  Alison is an ADR-ODR International accredited mediator.

Career

Research assistant Brussels Annexe of the Corporate Department of Messrs; Taylor Wessing, volunteer at the AIRE Centre providing advisory work in areas of European Law and the European Convention of Human Rights; judicial assistant The International Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands; completed a stage at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, as a JP Warner Scholar of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and a stage of the Council of the European Union in Brussels.

Memberships

• Court of Protection Practitioners Association (CoPPA, Chair of London Region),
• Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP) – full member and TEP
• Equality and Human Rights Commission (Panel member)
• Chancery Bar Association (ChBA, Wellbeing committee)
• Court of Protection Bar Association
• Administrative Law Bar Association (ALBA)
• Bar European Group (BEG)
• Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn (Euro Group committee member)

Education

• College of Cardiff University of Wales (1997 LLB Joint Hons Law/Politics);
• JP Warner Scholar (2000 Lincoln’s Inn);
• Sarah Wadham Bursary (1999 Lincoln’s Inn).