Natalie Sutherland qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and heads the firm’s Modern Families Department where she deals with:

• International and domestic surrogacy arrangements, advising intended parents and surrogates;
• Child arrangements where a surrogacy arrangement has broken down;
• Assisted reproductive technology law;
• Donor conception including advising on legal parentage and known donor agreements;
• Platonic co-parenting including advising on co-parenting agreements;
• Embryo disposition;
• Posthumous conception;
• Advising LGBTQ+ parents and single parents by choice; and
• Declarations of parentage.

In addition to her experience in the above, Natalie advises on the whole spectrum of family law issues, including;

• Divorce and dissolution of Civil Partnerships;
• International cases including domicile and jurisdiction disputes;
• Financial remedy applications;
• Private law child arrangements matters;
• International and domestic leave to remove disputes;
• Cases involving allegations of controlling and coercive behaviour and narcissistic personality disorder;
• Cases involving allegations of alienating behaviours;
• Cases involving vulnerable clients;
• Vaccination disputes relating to children, including the Covid vaccination;
• Cohabitation claims for unmarried couples;
• Schedule 1 (money) applications for children;
• Pre and post nuptial agreements;
• Variation of maintenance applications;
• Freezing injunctions; and
• Family Law Act applications relating to domestic abuse or occupation of the family home.

Natalie started out her career at boutique family law firm, Levison Meltzer Pigott, where she spent 9 years working directly with one of the founders dealing with high and ultra high net worth clients and matters with complex legal issues.

Prior to joining Burgess Mee, Natalie was Head of the Family Department at a firm in the City which is well known for its work in surrogacy and fertility law as well as LGBTQ+ issues.

Equally comfortable litigating and negotiating, Natalie relishes the challenge of finding creative and cost-effective solutions for her clients.

Reported cases:

Re Z (Surrogacy:Step-parent Adoption) [2024] EWFC 20 (30 January 2024)

Re X (Catastrophic Injury: Collection and Storage of Sperm) [2022] EWCOP 48 (16 November 2022)

SA v FA [2022] EWFC 115 (9 September 2022)

P v Q [2022] EWFC B9 (10 February 2022)

G v G [2012] EWHC 167 (Fam) (24 February 2012)

Awards:

Natalie won the inaugural Woman of the Year award in the 2023 Women and Diversity in Law Awards.

Natalie was Highly Commended in the Partner of the Year category in the LexisNexis Family Law Awards 2022.

Resolution:

Natalie is a Co-chair of the Resolution Children Committee.

In/Fertility in the City:

Natalie is passionate about opening up the conversation around fertility issues in the workplace. This passion led her to co-founding In/Fertility in the City, a podcast and live event series dedicated to exploring the complex relationship between in/fertility and work and how to manage this effectively.

In/Fertility in the City have hosted 3 live events; in December 2021 at Sidley Austin; in July 2022 at Stephenson Harwood; and in October 2023 at Clifford Chance. A fourth event will be held in June 2024 at Norton Rose Fulbright.  

In/Fertility in the City have won 3 awards:

• Age and Life Stage Initiative of the Year at the Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2023.
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Initiative of the Year at the Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2024.
• Innovation in Marketing and Social Strategy Award at the British Family Law Awards 2024.

Policy and law reform:

Natalie is also passionate about law reform and assisted former MP Nickie Aiken with her private members bill, Fertility Treatment (Employment Rights) Bill, and her Fertility Workplace Pledge. Natalie is also a founding member of the Workplace Fertility Campaign Group who are working to set up a Fertility APPG.

Fertility Officer and Fertility Friendly Employer:

In September 2021, Natalie was appointed as Burgess Mee’s Fertility Officer. The role was created in order to support our employees experiencing fertility issues and, importantly, signals to the employees that Burgess Mee is a firm which not only supports their staff in their career building aspirations, but in their family building aspirations too.

Following on from her appointment, the firm underwent training with Fertility Matters at Work and in November 2022, were the first company in the UK to become ‘Fertility Friendly’ accredited.

Trusteeship:

Natalie is a member of the Board of Trustees of Progress Educational Trust, a charity which advances public understanding of science, law and ethics in the fields of human genetics, assisted reproduction, embryology and stem cell research.

Speaking, writing, webinars and podcasts:

Natalie is an accomplished and in demand speaker where she gives talks on all aspects of modern family law and relating to the work she does around fertility in the workplace.

Natalie regularly authors articles on surrogacy, fertility law and posthumous conception.

In addition to co-hosting her own podcast, Natalie regularly appears as a guest on many other podcasts discussing modern and fertility in the workplace.

Modern Family Law Networking Pod:

Natalie founded a networking Pod of family lawyers all specialising in modern family law, which includes barristers from the top London chambers and solicitors from the major London law firms. The objective of the Pod is to strengthen relationships with other firms/chambers, promoting community over competition so that lawyers can learn from each other’s expertise for the benefit of their own clients and to refer work to a network of trusted and knowledgeable professionals.

In the media:

Natalie’s appointment as the firm’s Fertility Officer received considerable press attention. She was featured in The Mail on Sunday, The Times, Times2, The New Statesman, The Financial Times and CityAM.

Natalie was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour by Emma Barnett, and appeared on TalkRadio with Trisha Goddard, Times Radio with John Pienaar and Newstalk Radio in Ireland.

Interests:

Natalie is married with a daughter. She is proud of her Welsh roots.

Outside of work Natalie enjoys Peloton, Politics and Podcasts. She is currently enjoying listening to The Rest is Politics, Americast, Ukrainecast, The News Agents, BFN, The Worst Girl Gang Ever, Professionally Embarrassing and Modern Love.