louisa ghevaert

Louisa Ghevaert is the UK’s  preeminent expert in fertility, surrogacy, donor conception, children and family law and founder of specialist fertility and family law firm Louisa Ghevaert Associates.

Louisa is widely recognised in the media as a leading expert in fertility, surrogacy and family law:

• “The fertility lawyer and leading surrogacy expert” – BBC Radio London
• “Leading expert in UK fertility law” – BBC World Service ‘Have Your Say’
• “Leading expert in UK fertility and family law” – BBC Radio 5 Live
• “Leading expert in surrogacy and fertility law” – Times Radio
• “Leading UK surrogacy lawyer and family law expert” – The Independent
• “Leading UK fertility and family law expert” – Daily Mail

Fertility, Family and Children Law Expertise

Louisa’s specialist legal expertise includes: international and UK surrogacy, donor conception, fertility preservation and treatment law, posthumous conception, law and policy (fertility and genomics), co-parenting and known donor arrangements, adoption, legal parentage and parental responsibility, complex assisted reproduction disputes, children and family law disputes and international family law. Louisa also provides expert witness fertility, surrogacy and donor conception law services to support and defend claims for medical negligence where individual fertility has been lost or impaired.

Louisa has more than twenty years specialist family and children law experience and has practised fertility law in the UK since 2008. Her in-depth specialist legal expertise includes: complex fertility and family law litigation with an international element, legal status and identity of parents/children and families, parental rights for birth and non-birth parents, arrangements for the care and upbringing of children, issues surrounding financial provision for children, complex family/children and assisted reproduction disputes and management of legal issues surrounding fertility preservation and fertility treatment.

Cases and Law and Policy

Louisa has litigated many important and landmark fertility and family law cases for modern families in the UK and won changes and improvements to law and policy for parents, children and families.

In 2008, Louisa obtained parental orders for British intended parents in the first UK case for overseas surrogacy in the Ukraine, Re X and Y (Foreign Surrogacy) EWHC 3030 (Fam).

In 2009, Louisa helped a married couple to save their frozen embryos from destruction and win a high profile last minute change to UK law in relation to embryo storage.

In 2010, Louisa obtained a parental order for British intended parents who conceived a child with a US surrogate in Illinois in Re L (a minor) [2010] EWHC 3146 (Fam). This legal ruling set a precedent that the welfare of the surrogate born child is decisive over the public policy restrictions around commercial surrogacy in the UK except in the clearest cases of abuse of public policy.

In 2011, Louisa obtained a parental order for British parents whose surrogate born child was born stateless and parentless in the Ukraine and which warned of the risks of international surrogacy in the absence of specialist legal advice, In Re IJ (a Child) [2011] EWHC 921.

In 2011, Louisa helped a married couple win a rare legal battle against their PCT for funding for IVF treatment on the NHS.

In 2012, Louisa acted for a woman aged 24 who was denied IVF funding on the NHS by her local hospital authority for being too young and featured in The Independent and Mail Online (4 June 2012).

In 2013, Louisa obtained a parental order for British intended parents who had a surrogate born child through a Californian (USA) commercial surrogacy arrangement, In Re C[2013] EWHC 2409 (Fam). This case redefined the English Court’s approach to the authorisation of commercial payments given the UK public policy restriction around commercial surrogacy.

From 2014 -18, Louisa was an expert member of the Surrogacy UK Working Party Group for Law Reform and a contributor to its seminal report on surrogacy and law reform in 2015. This milestone report informed parliamentary debate on surrogacy law reform and policy in The House of Lords in 2016 and subsequent work to reform surrogacy law in the UK.

In 2016, Louisa obtained a declaration of parentage in the High Court for a woman in a same-sex relationship for a child conceived through fertility treatment at a UK fertility clinic licensed by the HFEA, In the matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case V) [2016] EWHC 2356 (Fam). The HFEA Consent Form WP was missing from the clinic file. The case for the first time gave guidance on the practice of making interim costs orders in favour of patients to fund litigation and access to justice following errors in the completion of consent forms at UK fertility clinics.

In 2017, Louisa gave expert evidence in XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2017] EWHC 2318 (QB), being the first legal case in the UK in which the High Court awarded damages to a woman for altruistic UK surrogacy and fertility treatment following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies which rendered her infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy.

In 2018, Louisa successfully represented an intended mother in an international surrogacy and blended family law dispute concerning 2 surrogate born children (Indian surrogacy). This case marks a legal first in the legal status, rights and treatment of blended families in the UK following surrogacy, divorce, re-marriage, serious allegations of domestic violence and abuse, AB v CD, EF, GH & IL [2018] EWHC 1590 (Fam).

In 2018, Louisa was part of the wife’s legal team and secured a unique first-of-its-kind legal ruling from the Court of Protection to extract and store sperm from a fatally injured man for use in posthumous fertility treatment, In Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18.

Through 2018, 2019 and 2020, Louisa’s expert surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment law evidence in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court resulted in further legal rulings for a woman left infertile following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies, enabling for the first time recovery of damages of approximately £558,000 for commercial surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment in California in the US, XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832 and Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14.

Through 2021 and 2022, Louisa successfully represented male intended parents and obtained parental orders for 3 surrogate born children following complex international conflicts of law between the US (California & Oregon), Denmark and the UK which created serious difficulties concerning the children’s legal parentage, citizenship and residence arrangements in Re X,Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] EWHC 198 (Fam).

In 2022, Louisa represented the applicant in a complex application for a declaration of parentage in the English High Court following an ancestry website search and a 35-year quest to find her biological father to resolve issues relating to her identity and her birth certificate. In granting the application, the court highlighted the fundamental importance relating to identity, status and parentage and the re-registration of birth certificates to provide properly maintained records not just for the benefit of individuals but for the public as well. The court also navigated complex legal issues and drew inferences from the respondent’s refusal to undergo DNA testing in X v Y [2022] EWFC 77.

Awards

In recognition of ground-breaking legal practice, Louisa was awarded a place on The Lawyer Hot 100 List 2018 for her ground-breaking legal work on milestone cases spanning 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 [2017]. In doing so, The Lawyer Hot 100 List 2018 recognised the 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’. The Lawyer Hot 100 List “celebrates the UK’s top lawyers: the ones acting on the most significant matters, disrupting the industry with their creative flair. It tracks exceptional individuals from private practice, in-house and the Bar”.

Louisa was also named Times Lawyer of the Week in October 2009 for her work helping a married couple save their frozen embryos from destruction and winning a high profile last minute change to embryo storage law in the UK.

Professional Memberships

Louisa holds multiple national and international professional memberships, as:

• A member of the international Egg Donation Stakeholder Advisory Group led by De Montfort University.
• A Fellow of the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys.
• A Fellow of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Section of the American Bar Association.
• A member of Resolution (the leading organisation for family justice professionals in England and Wales).

Publications

Louisa is a published author on fertility, surrogacy and modern family law. She is:

• An expert contributor on surrogacy law in leading practitioner reference book The International Family Law Practice (Sixth Edition 2021, Family Law). “In short, The International Family Law Practice continues to be an indispensable part of the practicing family lawyer’s library and an equally useful work of reference for the judiciary and the academic community”, Nigel Lowe, Emeritus Professor of Law, Cardiff University and Consultant to Number Fourteen of Gray’s Inn Square” (June 2021).
• A co-author of medical reference book Reducing Risk in Fertility Treatment (First Edition, April 2015) aimed at fertility clinicians, embryologists, nurses, counsellors and administrators. Louisa’s specialist chapter entitled “Legal and Regulatory Risks to Patients: The UK Context” addresses legal and regulatory pitfalls faced by fertility patients seeking various forms of fertility treatment in the UK.

Louisa also lectures nationally and internationally on fertility and modern family law in the UK.