Emily Boardman

Emily Boardman is a solicitor and one of the founding partners at Boardman, Hawkins & Osborne LLP.

She studied law at The University of London (SOAS) and obtained her professional qualifications from The College of Law (London). She trained in London and spent 12 years as the head of the family department in another Thames Valley firm before leaving to establish BH&O LLP.

She is a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children and The Law Society’s Children Panel.

Emily undertakes any complex family cases involving children but specialises particularly in cases against social services and private adoptions. She advises fostering and adoption agencies as well.

She was rated one of the Top 50 Influential Women in Business by Cotswold Life and was shortlisted by Oxfordshire Business Awards in the category of Young Business Person of the Year 2013. She won Employer of the Year 2014 at the Venus Awards 2014.

Emily can sometimes be found on social media:

Legal guides

Emily is recognised by The Legal 500 as a leading individual and is ranked in Band 1  by Chambers & Partners  with published comments over the years such as:

“Emily Boardman is one of the best lawyers of her generation. She is fiercely bright, and has immense emotional intelligence. She is quite rightly very sought after for her work in children cases and adoption.”

“Emily is like an encyclopaedia of family and children law.”

“Emily Boardman is an excellent solicitor. She is brilliant at giving robust advice and just getting the job done.”

“Emily Boardman is very thorough and tenacious. She’s a hugely strong lawyer who is very committed to her clients.”

“Emily Boardman is fiercely bright, standing out for her work involving non-accidental injuries and adoption.”

“Emily is one of the most talented public children and adoption law solicitors in the South East. She is a powerful solicitor to have on board if you are a parent in a case and very good to have on side. She goes above and beyond for her clients.”

“She has a very longstanding expertise in care proceedings and a particularly good legal mind for the work she does. She is not only sympathetic and trying to be a champion for people scrutinised by the state, but she also has good legal ideas and solutions for how to support the client.”

“Emily is dedicated to her work and leaves no stone unturned.”

She is “scrupulously thorough in her preparation of a case”.

She is “a force to be reckoned with”.

“She brings considerable experience to her cases and has a no-nonsense, down-to-earth approach which is extremely effective.”

“She shows a great deal of precision and compassion for her clients.”

“She is absolutely meticulous in her preparation and attentive to every detail of her cases. Her standard of client care is excellent.”

‘She is a key individual whose “forte lies in public work involving children”. “She is phenomenally hard-working and goes that extra mile”.

She is “very thorough, with very good client skills, and she will fight hard for her client’s corner.”

‘Emily Boardman is lauded for her work on cases involving complex medical issues, such as non-accidental injury and fabricated illness matters. Sources say that “she’s very client-focused and doesn’t give up without a fight. She’s hands-on and a good tactical thinker.”

Publicity

In 2024 Emily has had a number of reported cases.

She represents an adoptive mother who applied to revoke an adoption order in the High Court [https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2024/1059.html] and then appealed to the Court of Appeal [link to follow]. She wrote about this case here:  https://www.bholegal.co.uk/revocation-of-adoption-orders/

She has represented a mother in two sets of reported [links: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2024/303.html and https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2024/302.html ] care proceedings brought as a result of a number of serious injuries suffered by her young child. She represented a ftah in care proceedings when his young children were identified to have fractures [link: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/OJ/2024/247.html]

Emily represented a great-aunt in a successful appeal in the Court of Appeal against a Placement and Care Order for her great-nephew. The great-aunt was also successful in obtaining costs against the Local Authority as a result of their conduct of the case. The case was reported and Emily wrote about it for the BH&O website and for The Transparency Project.

She represented the Mother in the appeal brought by Louise Tickle (a freelance journalist) and the BBC against a Reporting Restriction Order in the reported case of Re R [2019] EWCA 482 Civ (15 February 2019). Emily wrote about the case here and was featured in The Law Society Gazette speaking about it.

Emily has written two published articles on challenging interim threshold as a consequence of two successful challenges in Re C (permission to withdraw: medical evidence: interim threshold not crossed) [2018] EWFC B37 and Re G (interim threshold) [2017] EWFC B34.

She is the Solicitor referred to by EP in Case for legal aid – from a desperate young mother and represented the Father referred to in ‘It was a routine hospital visit. Baby Maddy wasn’t putting on weight… What happens when the state takes your child away?