Sarah is a Special Counsel in the Melbourne Family & Relationship Law team and an integral member of the group, having worked at Lander & Rogers since the commencement of her career in 2007. Sarah received Lander & Rogers' Chic Lander Award in 2014 for outstanding contribution to client service, quality of work and overall contribution to the firm.
Sarah is an accredited family law specialist and experienced in in all areas of family law, with particular expertise advising clients experiencing complex parenting issues as well as those with extensive property and financial portfolios. She is one of a few family lawyers in Victoria with expertise in fertility, IVF and surrogacy law.
Clients appreciate Sarah's expert guidance and practical support when navigating family and relationship law challenges. She works closely with dispute resolution practitioners wherever possible to give clients the best opportunity to achieve outcomes that are child focussed and commercial.
Sarah is committed to the firm's pro bono and community engagement program, and has represented many clients on a pro bono basis to achieve meaningful and life changing outcomes. She has built relationships with Community Legal Centres to educate their teams on family law and family violence related issues. Sarah is a member of Victorian Women Lawyers and enjoys mentoring law students and lawyers.
Experience
Sarah's areas of expertise include:
- parenting matters, including negotiating appropriate parenting arrangements following separation
- property and financial matters, including property settlement and spousal maintenance
- financial agreements
- de facto property matters
- same sex property and parenting matters
- fertility, surrogacy and IVF law
- special medical procedures for children
- family violence and intervention order matters.
Career highlights
Sarah's career highlights include:
- successfully resolving a Financial Agreement dispute at mediation, where her client sought to have the pre-nuptial Agreement set aside due to duress, to ensure financial security and a commercial outcome for the client
- assisting a client to resolve their property settlement where the parties resided overseas and had assets in multiple jurisdictions
- acting for a client on a pro bono basis to ensure they could retain their home and continue caring for their special needs children after experiencing financial abuse
- successfully obtaining orders for a parent to have sole parental responsibility for their child to ensure they were able to make all future significant decisions for the child
- achieving orders which enabled a young parent who experienced significant family violence to relocate interstate.
Client feedback
What Sarah's clients say:
"I am so grateful for all the work you have done and all that you have achieved for me and my kids. Thank you so much for everything".
"It has been a privilege to have your support the last few years. Thank you for all that you have done for us. I am forever grateful".
"Thank you for being so supportive throughout the entire court process".
FAQs
What if my former partner ignores my requests for financial disclosure?
Where you have made reasonable enquiries of your partner to provide financial documents, such as bank statements, and they have refused to do so, we may advise you to issue subpoenas for the production of their financial information. Learn more about how the subpoena process works in this article.
Who will be on my legal team?
As the largest family law team in Australia, our resources mean that we can match each client with appropriately experienced lawyers based on the complexity of the matter, the financial position of the client, and the level of expertise your matter will require. Often, we arrange for a senior and junior lawyer, together with their legal assistants, to work with you. This provides you with multiple contact points at the firm and provides a cost effective offering, with the work divided between the lawyers appropriately.
View more commonly-asked questions about the legal aspects of family and relationship law in Australia here.