Sara Upton
Sara is a solicitor and a director of Hopkin Murray Beskine and specialises in public law children cases.
Sara joined Hopkin Murray Beskine in October 2020, having been a Senior Associate at Hodge Jones & Allen from 2010 to 2018, and a Director at Duncan Lewis from 2018.
Sara studied law at the University of Reading and the College of Law in Guildford. She qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and has specialised in family law since this time.
Sara specialises in public law children cases. She undertakes the majority of her own advocacy and represents parents, extended family members, children’s guardians, and children. Sara deals with complex cases involving non-accidental injury, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol and drug dependency and female genital mutilation (FGM). She regularly represents vulnerable clients with mental health or learning difficulties, as well as clients who require the use of an interpreter. Sara has also been instructed by the Official Solicitor in cases where her clients have been assessed as lacking capacity to conduct litigation independently.
Sara has been a member of the Law Society’s Children Panel since 2010, and is regularly instructed to represent children in the Family Courts. Sara is also a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children (ALC).
Sara is recommended in the Legal 500 Guide 2020 and 2021.
In addition to her public law children work, Sara also advises on private law children issues.
Recently reported cases:
Re X (Care Proceedings: Jurisdiction and Fact Finding) (Rev 1) [2020] EWHC 2742 (Fam) – complex case involving issues of jurisdiction and the court’s approach to the 1980 Hague Convention. Concerned issues of habitual residence, forum, foreign custody orders and summary orders for a child’s return abroad and discontinuance of a part-heard fact-finding hearing.
