Family team

Lauren studied the Legal Practice course full-time at the University of Law and completed the course with commendation. Lauren will complete her legal training with us in September 2019.

Shola is the Head of the Family Law team. She qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and has a broad range of experience in both the public and private sector in various aspects of family law. Shola has worked in local government since 2006, initially as a childcare lawyer and then as the principal lawyer with overall management responsibility for the team.

She has developed specialist experience in childcare law, having dealt with a range of complex cases. She also has experience in adult community care matters, dealing with the Court of Protection and other cases. Shola provides advice to the Waltham Forest Safeguarding Board on both serious case reviews and safeguarding adult reviews.

She has been a member of the Law Society's Children Panel Accreditation Scheme (Local Authority) and has a diploma in Local Government Law as well as a Masters in Law (LLM).

Edna has been a local government child protection lawyer since May 2000 for a number of London local authorities.

She joined the London Borough of Waltham Forest as a senior lawyer in the Family team in November 2017.

Keryn is a Lawyer in the Family Law team and works in child protection and adult social care. Prior to this role, Keryn worked for a firm specialising in domestic violence cases. She handled her own caseload and worked directly with clients to help them obtain non-molestation orders, occupation orders or prohibited steps orders.

Keryn studied Law and Criminology at university and completed a study abroad year at the University of Western Australia. She is currently studying the Legal Practice Course part-time.

Fayeka specialises in family law, originally coming from a private practice background. Her practice now focuses exclusively on care proceedings. She draws on her private practice background to inform her work in care proceedings, including her advocacy skills. Her experience in care proceedings covers non-accidental injuries, sexual abuse and cases with an international element.

Khalida is a family lawyer with extensive experience in dealing with all aspects of care proceedings. She has acted on numerous complex cases involving physical and emotional harm, non-accidental injury, sexual abuse, domestic violence and forced marriage, as well as cases involving international elements. Khalida has experience of dealing with adoption proceedings and applications under the Human Right Act and has worked for a number of Local Authority legal teams prior to joining Waltham Forest.

Sahdiah is a Senior Family Lawyer and was admitted as a Solicitor in 2007. Sahdiah worked in private practice for a number of years and joined Waltham Forest Legal Services in 2009, initially as a Family Lawyer and developed her practice. She has a wealth of specialist experience in Childcare Law and has dealt with a range of complex cases with a wide spectrum of issues. Sahdiah is committed to working for local government and has a keen interest in ensuring our most vulnerable members of the community are adequately safeguarded. Sahdiah has successfully obtained the Diploma in Local Government Law.