Lucinda qualified in 2020 and is an associate member of chambers alongside her roles as Associate Professor of Family Law at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow in Law at Oriel College, Oxford.
Lucinda is a specialist in family law and education law and has advised and acted at all levels up to and including the High Court. Her thriving family law practice includes all areas of family finance, private law children matters, a wide range of public law matters, child abduction, and emergency injunctions. Lucinda’s academic background makes her a particularly useful junior in cases that involve significant research or novel issues.
Lucinda practises in all areas of family finance, including financial remedies, Schedule 1 of the Children Act, and Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. She has experience dealing with cases involving substantial assets, complex business structures, and jurisdictional disputes.
Lucinda also has experience in contested divorce proceedings, including cases involving defended petitions and cross-petitions.
Lucinda’s thriving private law practice includes application for Child Arrangements Orders, Prohibited Steps Orders, and Specific Issue Orders. She has a wide range of experience in intractable disputes, including contested final hearings.
Lucinda has particular expertise in cases that involve disputes over parentage and parental responsibility. She regularly appears in relocation cases.
In her public law work, Lucinda regularly acts on behalf of local authorities, parents, children’s guardians, and other family members. She has experience of complex cases involving non-accidental injury and sexual abuse, as well as jurisdiction issues.
Lucinda practises in cases involving international child abduction, and recently drafted the skeleton argument for a successful application to permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal against an ordered return.
Lucinda’s practice covers both schools and higher education providers. She has particular expertise in relation to disability discrimination and other claims under the Equality Act 2010, breach of contract, and unlawful exclusion from school.
Reputation & Awards
“Your input has been absolutely invaluable. You have been central in making this happen for [client] and the children. A big thank you.”
- Instructing Solicitors
‘Lucinda’s representation was invaluable and I was delighted with the outcome’ – Lay Client
Recent Cases
- She recently successfully represented a parent of a child with special educational needs in an application for judicial review of a local authority’s refusal to permit her to bring her legal representative to mediation over her child’s EHCP: R (Kumar) v London Borough of Hillingdon [2020] EWHC 3326 (Admin).
Awards and Scholarships
- Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- Finalist, Oxford University Press Law Teacher of the Year 2016
- Teaching Excellence Award, University of Oxford
- Oxford University Student Union Teaching Award for the Most Acclaimed Lecturer in the Social Sciences Division
- Numerous undergraduate and graduate scholarships and prizes, including: Commonwealth Scholarship, Canadian Rhodes Scholars’ Foundation Scholarship, AHRC Graduate Scholarship, Demyship from Magdalen College, Oxford as well as various University of Oxford prizes for examination performance in individual undergraduate examinations
Education
- Bar Transfer Test, BPP for the BSB. Pass at first sit. Marks equivalent to Outstanding for Advocacy: Cross-Examination, Professional Ethics; and Very Competent for Civil Litigation, Criminal Litigation, Advocacy: Applications and Examination-in-Chief
- Post-Graduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Oxford. Distinction
- LLM, Queen’s University, Canada
- BCL, University of Oxford
- BA (Hons) in Jurisprudence (English Law with German Law), University of Oxford. Class I
Professional Memberships
- Family Law Bar Association
- International Society for Family Law
- Member of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple
Languages
- German – advanced but somewhat rusty undergraduate legal German
- French – rusty A-level
- Spanish – rusty AS-level
Publications
As an academic, Lucinda actively publishes in family law and education law.
Practice-relevant publications include:
- L Ferguson, ‘Children at risk of school dropout’ in JG Dwyer (ed), Oxford Handbook of Children and the Law (Oxford University Press 2020)
- L Ferguson, ‘Brexit, Non-Court Dispute Resolution, and Family Justice’ [2017] Family Law 1130-1141
- L Ferguson, ‘The curious case of civil partnership: The extension of marriage to same-sex couples and the status-altering consequences of a wait-and-see approach’ (2016) 28(4) Children and Family Law Quarterly 347-364
- L Ferguson, ‘Arbitration in Financial Dispute Resolution: The Final Step to Reconstructing the Default(s) and Exception(s)?’ (2013) 35 Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 115-138
- L Ferguson, ‘Not merely rights for children but children’s rights: The theory gap and the assumption of the importance of children’s rights’ (2013) 21 International Journal of Children’s Rights 117-208
- Various case commentaries, including on Owens v Owens [2017] EWCA Civ 182; Steinfeld and Keidan v Secretary of State for Education [2016] EWHC 128 (Admin); Wyat v Vince [2015] UKSC 14; and S v S [2014] EWHC 7 (Fam)