Family Law Team

Aysen Soyer

Aysen Soyer qualified as a solicitor with Pegden & Dubow in 1996. She joined Wilson & Co in January 2000 and was made a partner in 2005, and is head of the Family Department.

Aysen specialises in family and child law. Her practice covers all aspects of family work, including divorce and financial settlement, domestic violence and injunctions, and public and private law Children Act work. She has also dealt with adoption and international child abduction, and has been instructed by the Official Solicitor. She is a member of the Law Society's Family Law Panel.

Jacinta Lonnen

Jacinta Lonnen worked as an Adviser at a Citizens' Advice Bureau before qualifying as a solicitor at a large legal aid firm in Manchester in 1998. Jacinta has been a member of the Law Society's Children Panel since February 2003.

She has specialised in Children work since qualification and deals only with cases involving children, including care, adoption, contact, residence and child abduction matters. She has acted for parents, children and other interested parties. She has an interest in children cases with an education law element, most recently including appearing in a complex case in the High Court concerning the duties of a local authority to place a child in care in a special school. She is an experienced advocate, holding rights of audience in the higher civil courts, and will always represent clients herself wherever possible.

Deborah Piccos

Deborah Piccos trained with Joy Merriam & Co and qualified as a solicitor in 2001, joining Wilson & Co in 2002. She specialises in family law and is particularly interested in children work including care, child abduction, residence and contact matters, as well as injunction work. Deborah undertakes a large proportion of her own advocacy and is a member of the Edmonton County Court Committee, which aims to improve the local court service.

Deborah is a member of LAGLA and regularly acts for lesbian and gay clients in all aspects of children and family law. She is an experienced advocate and holds rights of audience in the higher civil courts. She appears regularly in care proceedings, including complex international child abduction and committal cases. Deborah is a member of the Law Society Children Panel.

Patricia Beckett

Patricia Beckett joined Wilson & Co in 1998 and qualified as a Family solicitor in 2002. She specialises in Children and Family law, and her areas of work include private law children work, public law children work for parents, divorce/dissolutions and ancillary relief, and Family Law injunctions, as well as cohabitation law.

She has a particular interest in Children Act work, and has experience in representing and assisting grandparents in obtaining contact with, residence or special guardianship of their grandchildren. Patricia also enjoys ancillary relief work and has experience in cases involving substantial assets.

Patricia has been a member of the Law Society Family Law Panel since 2005. She is a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children. She has undertaken voluntary work at the local Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Amna Khaliq

Amna Khaliq joined Wilson & Co in 2001, and qualified as a solicitor in 2005, having trained in children, family and immigration law.

Amna exclusively specialises in family law, and her practice covers divorce, ancillary relief, unmarried family disputes, private and public law children work, and family law injunctions. Amna specialises in acting for parents in care proceedings, residence and contact disputes. Amna has also dealt with international child abduction and represented grandparents in children act proceedings.

Among her recent cases is SS v KS EWHC 1575 Fam (Interlocutory appeal by mother against order for interim contact when there are allegations of domestic violence in contact proceedings). Amna is a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children.

David Wallace

David Wallace joined Wilson & Co in 2005 and qualified as a solicitor in 2008, having trained in family, children and immigration law. He previously worked for the Family Welfare Association, a national charity helping children and families in need.

He deals with all aspects of family law, and has a particular expertise in cases involving both family and immigration law, for example in residence or contact cases where either a parent or the child does not have immigration status.

Michelle Flynn

Michelle Flynn trained at Kenneth Elliott & Rowe and qualified as a solicitor in 2002 where she joined the Childcare team at IBB Solicitors in Uxbridge. Michelle joined Wilson & Co in 2009 and has been a member of the Law Society's Children Panel since 2007.

Michelle is an experienced childcare specialist and advises on all areas of Children law, including private law disputes between parents, public law care proceedings, placement order proceedings and special guardianship and adoption matters. Michelle regularly represents children and their Guardian's in care proceedings and is also instructed in private law Rule 9.5 appointments. Michelle represents clients at all levels of the family court system and has experience of representing clients with mental health and learning difficulties and has dealt with cases where she has been instructed by the Official Solicitor. Michelle has experience of complex non-accidental injury cases and sexual abuse cases.

Michelle is a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children and NAGALRO.

Lorna Yates

Lorna Yates studied Law at Oxford University, and completed the Legal Practice Course at the University of Northumbria. She joined Wilson & Co in 2006, and qualified as a solicitor in 2009, having trained in Children, Family and Immigration Law. Lorna's practice covers all aspects of family work, including public and private law Children Act work, domestic violence, divorce and financial settlement.

Lorna practises exclusively in family law; however she is also an accredited senior caseworker in Immigration Law. Lorna has extensive experience of family cases where the immigration status of the children or parents has not yet been settled, and is particularly interested in working with asylum seeking families.

Among her cases is LBH (A Local Authority v KJ & Ors) [2007], which considered whether a parent automatically falls foul of the threshold criteria in care proceedings, when the local authority has not provided the support that could be expected in respect of a severely disabled child.