We are delighted to announce that Allison Munroe KC, Amanda Meuz and Stephen Lue have been shortlisted at The Family Law Awards 2025.
The Garden Court Family Law Team are recognised for their outstanding level of expertise. Garden Court Chambers is ranked as a leading set of chambers for family law in the Chambers & Partners UK and Legal 500 Bar Guides.
The LexisNexis Family Law Awards 2025 recognises the important work of family lawyers and the winners will be announced at a ceremony on 19 November 2025.
Click here to view the shortlist in full.
Allison Munroe KC – Family Law KC of the Year
The Family Law KC of the Year Award honours a KC who has made a major contribution to the field of family law through their advice and high-level advocacy.
Allison Munroe KC is a silk who is passionate about protecting the wellbeing of vulnerable children and families. Allison has a mixed practice, specialising in inquests & inquiries, crime and mental health, in addition to her explicit family law work. Across the board, Allison is focused on the protection of the civil liberties of parents and children.
Allison has always had a commitment to mental health issues, and the quality and provisions of social services. The heart of Allison’s day-to-day practice is advocacy in court.
Allison has extensive expertise and experience working on large-scale inquests and public inquiries of national importance. She is currently instructed in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, representing Covid Bereaved Families for Justice UK (CBFJUK). Her public submissions have been livestreamed and received widespread news coverage, Allison also acted in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, representing a number of bereaved families.
Allison continues to provide training and support for professional clients; as well as working with young people, particularly those finding it difficult to break into the legal profession.
Amanda Meusz – Family Law Champion of the Year
This Champion of the Year Award will go to an individual who has who has made an outstanding contribution in the family law sphere in the past year. The shortlist has been chosen from the entries based primarily on achievements in the last 2 years, with the winner being decided by an online vote of the family law community. You can vote for Amanda here.
Amanda is a barrister passionate about championing trauma-informed training and practice in the family justice system. For the last five years, Amanda has adopted a trauma-informed and responsive approach to representation of vulnerable parents and children in public and private family proceedings. She has worked relentlessly to ensure that clients feel safe, heard, understood, able to give full instructions, are not retraumatised by the court process, and to ensure that effective participation directions are in place.
Amanda also ensures that appropriate adaptations are in place early in the court process to facilitate effective working together with children’s services and assessments. Amanda has also been instrumental in introducing Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) training in the profession and use of this intervention has been instrumental in the reunification of a number of children with their family. She is currently working on a trauma-informed guide for the family court.
Amanda works closely with Lawyers Who Care (LWC), is an LWC champion and is also a mentor. Amanda helped devise the compulsory trauma-informed training for LWC mentors.
Amanda studied law at UCL and was the first in her family to go to university or gain qualifications. She grew up as the only child in a single parent household, her compassion for clients and children is based on a real understanding of growing up in difficult circumstances and in poverty.
Stephen Lue – Family Law Junior of the Year
The Family Law Junior of the Year Award honours a barrister of at least 5 years post call who has made a major contribution to the field of family law through their advice and high-level advocacy.
Stephen Lue is a specialist family law barrister. His practice covers a wide range of applications including public and private children law, financial remedies in divorce cases, international child abduction work and domestic violence. He also acts in Court of Protection cases. Stephen was previously shortlisted in the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Awards 2021 for Barrister of the Year.
Stephen’s experience in private law children work covers contact and residence applications including contested final hearings, where there are serious allegations of sexual abuse, coercive and controlling behaviour and violence. His strength is always keeping the focus on the welfare of the child.
In relation to his public law children practice, Stephen has experience representing parents, Guardians, grandparents and parties making special guardianship applications, and is regularly instructed in cases which involve issues of neglect, drug misuse, mental health, domestic violence, physical and emotional abuse.
Stephen is a passionate advocate for LGBT rights, Black equality, and supports a number of charities as a Trustee. Stephen has offered mini pupillages to individuals from non-traditional backgrounds who do not have links to the profession. Stephen wis a volunteer for Diversity Role models; a charity focused on celebrating the stories of LGBTQ+ professionals in schools. He is Secretary of the Bar Lesbian and Gay Group (BLAGG).
