23 June 2025
On 19 June 2025, Louisa Ghevaert had the pleasure of attending Resolution’s Modern Families Forum 2025 in London. Lord Justice Peter Jackson delivered an illuminating keynote address on legal parentage and the challenges this can present for families when the circumstances of a child’s conception, parentage and parental responsibility fall into dispute. This was followed by a modern family law case update and sessions which grappled with the technicalities of who has or doesn’t have parentage and parental responsibility in law. It served as a reminder that modern family and assisted conception law continues to evolve rapidly and that it can create all sorts of tricky issues when people build or restructure families and parental status and rights are disputed.
Images: Lord Justice Peter Jackson, a a Lord Justice of Appeal and Louisa Ghevaert, CEO & Founder of Louisa Ghevaert Associates
Lord Justice Peter Jackson eloquently examined the complex legal issues that arose in the case of P v Q & F (Child:Legal Parentage) [2024] EWCA Civ 878 which concerned a dispute about the circumstances of a little girl’s birth and the legal status of her non-birth parent following a female same-sex couple’s marital breakdown.The birth mother applied to court for a Declaration of Non Parentage to remove her ex-partner’s legal parenthood triggering a dispute about whether the little girl had been conceived by artificial conception with donor sperm or through sex. The Court of Appeal went on to determine that when the circumstances of a child’s conception cannot be proved as having occurred through artificial insemination, the Court must determine legal parentage based on common law principles. This resulted in a legal ruling that the non-birth parent was not the child’s second legal parent and that the sperm donor was her legal father. It also highlighted the fact that private informal conception carries risks for everyone involved.
The subsequent modern family case law update was co-presented by barristers Jennifer Lee at Pump Court and Mavis Amonoo-Acquah at Harcourt Chambers. It provided a whistlestop overview of recent modern family law cases spanning legal parentage and parental responsibility involving donor conception, surrogacy and posthumous conception.
Images: Jennifer Lee barrister at Pump Court Chambers and Mavis Amonoo-Acquah barrister at Harcourt Chambers
Further sessions took deeper dives into legal approaches to legal parenthood and whether parental responsibility is void ab initio (from the outset) or voidable following a Declaration of Non Parentage by a panel of speakers including by counsel Joseph Landman at 1 Kings Bench Walk Chambers and Karen Kabweru-Namulemu at 1GC Family Law Chambers.
Image: Karen Kabweru-Namulemu barrister at 1GC Family Law Chambers
Modern Family Law
The complexity of modern approaches to family building, coupled with the evolving nature of modern family and assisted reproduction law, makes it critical for prospective parents to obtain expert legal advice on pathways to parenthood, birth registration, acquisition of parental responsibility and upbringing of their proposed children.
Need a family or fertility lawyer? We provide a range of specialist legal strategies and solutions to assist with the management of family building using assisted reproduction technologies, surrogacy, donor conception, as well as legal parentage, parental responsibility, birth certificates and the upbringing of children. If you would like to discuss your situation or you require specialist fertility, surrogacy and family law assistance please contact Louisa Ghevaert by email louisa@louisaghevaertassociates.co.uk or by telephone+44 (0)20 7965 8399.
Images: Louisa Ghevaert, CEO & Founder of Louisa Ghevaert Associates
