Louisa Ghevaert

Louisa Maria Ghevaert
CitizenshipBritish
OccupationSolicitor
Years active2000 - present
OrganizationLouisa Ghevaert Associates
Known for
WebsiteOfficial profile
Notes

Louisa Maria Ghevaert (born September 1974) is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. Ghevaert specialises in fertility, surrogacy, donor conception, posthumous conception, adoption and parentage, children and family law.[2][3][4][5]

Education

Louisa Ghevaert obtained a Batchelor of Arts Honours Degree in History (BA Hons) at the University of Bristol, before undertaking the Common Professional Entrance (CPE) and the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the College of Law in Guildford.[6][7]

Career

They have worked on a series of landmark legal cases for changes and improvements to fertility, children law, and family law for families in the UK. She is the founder of specialist fertility and family law firm Louisa Ghevaert Associates.[1][8][9]

In 2008, Ghevaert acted for British intended parents in Re X and Y (foreign surrogacy) [2008] EWHC 3030 (Fam), being the first case in UK legal history to test the law for British parents conceiving through an international commercial surrogacy arrangement in Ukraine.[10]

In 2009 Ghevaert acted for Melanie and Robert Gladwin saving their frozen embryos from destruction, which led directly to the Department of Health issuing a change to embryo storage law in the UK for surrogate pregnancies, for which she was named The Times Lawyer of the Week.[11]

In 2010, Ghevaert acted for British intended parents who conceived a child with a US surrogate in Re L (a minor) [2010] EWHC 3146 (Fam). The case set a precedent that the welfare of the child is decisive over the UK public policy ban of commercial surrogacy except in the clearest cases of abuse of public policy.[12] The national media covered the outcome.[13][14][15]

In 2011, Ghevaert obtained a parental order for a British couple whose surrogate-born child was stuck between two conflicting legal systems, stateless and parentless, following a commercial surrogacy arrangement in the Ukraine in Re IJ (a Child) EWHC 921 (Fam). The ruling affirmed the paramount welfare of the child and highlighted the legal parentage and immigration difficulties that overseas surrogacy agreements can create.[16]

Ghevaert acted for Donna and Dean Marshall in 2011, helping them win a rare legal battle for IVF funding on the NHS against their local hospital authority.[17] Its restrictive eligibility criteria had precluded them, determining that they were not childless because Mr. Marshall had a child from a previous relationship who lived with his former wife 200 miles away.[18]

In 2012, Ghevaert challenged arbitrary age restrictions and acted for Andrea Heywood, who aged 24 was denied NHS funding for IVF by her local hospital authority for being too young and told that she would not meet eligibility criteria until she reached age 30.[18][19] In 2014, Ghevaert acted for the intended father in a UK surrogacy dispute about a child's care and parentage in JP v LP & Ors [2014] EWHC 595 (Fam). The legal ruling highlighted the risks of informal agreements and established a legal framework for cases where criteria for a parental order cannot be met following marital breakdown and divorce.[20][21]

From 2014 to 2018, Ghevaert was a member of the cross-organizational Surrogacy UK Working Party on Surrogacy Law Reform[22] and contributor to the report on surrogacy in the UK Myth busting and reform (2015).[23] This informed parliamentary debate on surrogacy law reform and policy in The House of Lords in 2016 and subsequent work on reform of surrogacy law in the UK by the Law Commissions of England, Wales and Scotland from 2018 to 2023.[24] She was part of the wife's legal team in Y v A  Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18, a 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.[25][26][27] Ghevaert was awarded a place on The Lawyer Hot 100 List 2018 for her legal work on cases regarding the family, fertility and medical sectors. They described her "as an influential figure when it comes to ensuring fertility laws are fit for purpose in the 21st century".[28]

Through 2018, 2019 and 2020, Ghevaert's expert legal evidence in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court resulted in further legal rulings for a woman rendered infertile following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies, enabling for the first time recovery of damages for commercial surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment in the US, XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832[29] and Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14.[30][31][32]

From 2017 to 2022, Ghevaert was an expert member of the Egg Donation in the UK, Belgium and Spain: an Interdisciplinary Study (EDNA) Stakeholder Advisory Group led by Professor Nicky Hudson at the Centre for Reproduction Research (CRR) at De Montfort University in collaboration with the Bioethics Institute Ghent, in Belgium and the Consejo Superior Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Spain.[33] The EDNA study was funded by the Economic & Social Research Council and looked at the future landscape of egg donation policy, practices and governance in the UK, Belgium and Spain. [34]

In 2022, in Re X, Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) EWHC 198 (Fam) Ghevaert obtained parental orders for three surrogate born children following the collapse of a US surrogacy agency, threatened deportation by Danish Authorities and criminal charges, extending the six-month legal deadline to meet the children's lifelong welfare and provide permanence and security for their care.[35][36]

In 2022, Ghevaert also obtained a declaration of parentage for a woman after a 35-year search for her father using ancestry DNA testing in X v Y [2022] EWFC 77. The High Court made the legal ruling despite the biological father's refusal to undergo accredited laboratory DNA testing and highlighted the fundamental importance of identity, parentage and the re-registration of birth certificates to provide properly maintained records for individuals and the public benefit.[37]

In 2023, Ghevaert became an expert advisory member to the 3-year research study “Reproduction in the age of genomic medicine: the emergence, commercialisation and implications of preconception expanded carrier screening (PRECAS)” led by Professor Cathy Herbrand with a team of nine researchers and a partner the Progress Educational Trust (PET) at the Centre for Reproduction Research (CRR) at De Montfort University. The PRECAS study, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), investigates the emergence of expanded carrier screening (ECS) for preconception use amongst the general population to help shape regulatory approaches to policy generation in the UK and internationally.[38]

In 2024, in Re G v Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority EWHC 2453 (Fam) Ghevaert acted for a mother who sought posthumous use of her deceased daughter's eggs in fertility treatment with donor sperm and surrogacy. The case addressed legal and factual issues that had not previously come before the English Court, resulting in intervention by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on policy grounds. It led to a ruling refusing posthumous use absent the deceased's explicit written consent,  whilst affirming for the first time legal rights for relatives such as a mother (not just a partner or spouse) to posthumously use a deceased's frozen gametes to have a baby with a surrogate provided the deceased has given written consent on a prescribed form.[39]

Through 2024 and 2025, Ghevaert acted for a transgender man with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) in FZ v MZ  & FZ v Y Council [2025] EWHC 3338 (Fam). The case tested the law for the first time in England and Wales on whether he could lawfully be registered as father on his second child's birth certificate after his wife's artificial conception with donor sperm outside of a licensed UK fertility clinic. It resulted in a ruling that he could not be registered as father or mother due to a lacuna in the law and that his only route to legal parenthood was via adoption. Simultaneously, Judicial Review proceedings were required to quash his erroneous registration as father on his first child's birth certificate, there being no statutory power to register afresh without leaving the initial registration manually struck through which risked exposing his transgender status. It also necessitated an adoption order in respect of his first child who was artificially conceived by private arrangement with donor sperm whilst he was engaged but not yet married to the mother.[40][41]

Publications

Ghevaert is a specialist contributor on surrogacy law in practitioner reference book The International Family Law Practice.[42] She also contributed to the book Legal and Regulatory Risks to Patients: The UK Context.[43]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "M & S PROFILE: Louisa Ghevaert". New Law Journal. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  2. ↑ William, Connolly (January 1, 2016). "Life, Love and Furry Friends". Gay Times. pp. 140–41.
  3. ↑ "BBC World Service - Business Daily, The economics of older mums". BBC. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  4. ↑ "Should surrogacy be easier in the UK?". January 21, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  5. ↑ Manning, Sanchez. "Rapid rise in parents using Nigerian surrogate mothers". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  6. ↑ "19/01/2011, Woman's Hour - BBC Radio 4". BBC. Archived from the original on February 5, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Was it legal to create a grandson with a dead man's sperm?". The Times. September 13, 2018.
  8. ↑ Donnelly, Laura (March 10, 2017). "Couple's delight as lesbian surrogates give them the children they longed for". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Britons fuel rise in global surrogacy trade". The Independent. March 15, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  10. ↑ Campbell, Denis (April 5, 2010). "Couples who pay surrogate mothers could lose right to raise the child". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ Tsang, Linda (October 1, 2009). "Lawyer of the Week: Louisa Ghevaert". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Childless couples win the right to pay surrogate mothers". December 8, 2010. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  13. ↑ Dow, Katherine (February 7, 2017). "'A Nine-Month Head-Start': The Maternal Bond and Surrogacy". Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology. 82 (1): 86–104. doi:10.1080/00141844.2015.1028957 – via EBSCO Information Services.
  14. ↑ Ross, Tim (December 11, 2010). "Surrogacy couple: paying American woman was our last chance for a child". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 17, 2025.
  15. ↑ Bennett, Catherine (December 12, 2010). "Why it is immoral to deny payment to surrogate mothers". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  16. ↑ "High Court judge approves commercial surrogacy". BBC News. May 19, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  17. ↑ Beckford, Martin (December 19, 2011). "Couple win IVF funding battle with NHS". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  18. 1 2 "Too young to have IVF: 24-year-old Andrea Heywood fights for her right". The Independent. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  19. ↑ Dyer, C. (June 11, 2012). "Infertile woman, aged 24, accuses trust of age discrimination after being refused IVF". BMJ. 344 (jun11 2): e4064–e4064. doi:10.1136/bmj.e4064. ISSN 1756-1833.
  20. ↑ Prynne, Miranda (March 6, 2014). "DIY surrogate pregnancy deal ends in court battle". Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  21. ↑ "Case leads to surrogacy advice". BBC News. March 6, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
  22. ↑ "Surrogacy - Hansard - UK Parliament". hansard.parliament.uk. December 14, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Surrogacy in the UK: Myth busting and reform Report of the Surrogacy UK Working Group on Surrogacy Law Reform". November 20, 2015.
  24. ↑ Ghevaert, Louisa. "Surrogacy in the UK: Time for legal reform?". The Times. Retrieved January 9, 2026.
  25. ↑ "Dying man with brain injury has sperm extracted in bid to allow wife to become pregnant". The Independent. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  26. ↑ "Sperm taken from fatally injured man". The Times. July 11, 2019. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  27. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Listener Week: Psychedelics, Peripheral friendship, Posthumous conception, Beach Guardian". BBC. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  28. ↑ "The Lawyer Hot 100 2018: Louisa Ghevaert, Michelmores". The Lawyer | Legal insight, benchmarking data and jobs. January 29, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
  29. ↑ "Woman left infertile after NHS failed to detect cancer for four years awarded £580k to cover surrogacy costs". The Telegraph. December 19, 2018.
  30. ↑ "UK woman wins claim for NHS to pay US surrogacy costs". TheGuardian.com. April 2020.
  31. ↑ Gregory, Andrew. "'I want NHS to pay for four surrogate babies'". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  32. ↑ "Women left infertile due to clinical negligence could claim for surrogacy abroad following landmark ruling".
  33. ↑ "The CRR resource library". De Montfort University. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  34. ↑ "Qualitative Data Sets for EDNA Project, 2017-2020". UK Data Service. Retrieved February 11, 2025.
  35. ↑ "Denmark Threatens To Deport Surrogate-Born Children".
  36. ↑ "Families across frontiers". Law Society of Scotland. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  37. ↑ Ferguson, Donna (August 18, 2024). "Rise in DNA tests being used to claim citizenship of other countries". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  38. ↑ "PRECAS". precas.dmu.ac.uk. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  39. ↑ "G v Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority [2024] EWHC 2453 (FAM): two distinct routes to posthumous fertility treatment".
  40. ↑ Keal, Jessica. "Modern parents who fall between the legal gaps". Law Gazette. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  41. ↑ "Parenthood lacuna revealed as trans man required to adopt own children". Law Society of Scotland. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  42. ↑ Hodson, David (August 2021). International Family Law Practice Sixth edition. Jordan publishing. ISBN 978-1-78473477-0.
  43. ↑ Mathur, Raj, ed. (March 11, 2015). Reducing risk in fertility treatment. London: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4471-5257-6. OCLC 904799138.
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