Profile
Work Department
Position
Lucy Clayton (pronouns: she / her / hers) is a specialist family lawyer with an emphasis on private family law matters and cases involving financial provision following separation, dissolution or divorce.
Lucy has particular expertise in disputes involving domestic violence, sexual abuse, mental health issues, internal relocation and implacable hostility. She has a keen interest in cases involving parental alienation, abduction, LGBTQIA+ parenting and surrogacy and the misuse of social/digital media.
Lucy is a forensic and pragmatic advocate whose sensitive and personable approach make her popular with professional and lay clients alike.
In recent years, Lucy has cultivated her interest in academia through her role as a Senior Lecturer, teaching postgraduate professional ethics and advocacy at Bristol Law School. She regularly uses her witness handling skills to deliver advocacy training to solicitors and trainee advocates, having done so nationally and internationally, in concert with the University of Gibraltar.
Lucy is an accredited Civil / Commercial mediator and was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship Grant to research international minimal acrimony litigation tools and dispute resolution programs in private family law child cases. Prior to embarking upon pupillage, Lucy undertook a six-month internship in the Hague working with defence counsel on the Lukić appeal at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
In her spare time, Lucy enjoys paddleboarding, open water swimming, watching rugby and chasing her two young sons around the garden.
Family
Private Law Children - All s8 Children Act matters including:
- Child Arrangement Orders
- Fact-finding hearings
- Applications for a Prohibited Steps Order
- Applications for a Specific Issue Order
- Enforcement Applications
- Guardians
- Expert evidence
- Local Authority involvement
- The Local Authority acting as an intervener
- Allegations of domestic violence
- Allegations of child abuse
- Cases involving a foreign element (i.e., removal from the jurisdiction).
- Non-Molestation and Occupation Orders under Family Law Act 1996
Reported case
Re D + Ors (Children) 2017 EWFC B87
Career
Year of Call: 2009
Memberships
Education
- Undergraduate Degree (2004 – 2007)
- Law LLB, University College London
- Post-graduate qualifications (2008 – 2009)
- Bar Vocational Course, BPP Law School, Holborn, London
Content supplied by 3PB
Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'Ian Charlton is always attentive and will always be available to help. Isabelle Lea is extremely good, has excellent communication and makes you feel that she has everything under control.'
- 'Ian Charlton is a go-to. You can completely trust his opinion.'
- 'David Sadler is efficient, helpful and provides excellent customer service.'
- 'The clerks are helpful and always willing to assist, and they will go above and beyond in order to accommodate choice of counsel. They are so helpful. Gemma Hyett is wonderful to deal with.'
- 'The clerks' room is excellent. Ian Charlton, Gemma Hyett, Rob Leonard and Philip Jones are exceptional and will do anything they can to help and are very approachable.'
- 'Isabelle Lee and Gemma Hyett are fantastic; very swift to respond and always on top of their barristers' diaries.'
- 'An excellent, strong clerking team. Ian Charlton is always accommodating and helpful and is extremely well supported by Isabelle Lee, Gemma Hyett, and Philip Jones who are always pleasant, responsive and helpful and cannot do enough.'
- 'Ian Charlton and Rob Leonard are class acts. They go the extra mile on availability as well as fee negotiation. You feel like you have a genuine relationship with them. They really look after you.'