Katie Stephens

Introduction

Since accepting instructions in April 2025, Katie Stephens has developed a varied family law practice encompassing financial remedies, TLATA, private children and care proceedings. She completed pupillage under the supervision of Carolyn Jones and Juliet Allen in September 2025.

In TLATA proceedings, Katie has experience acting at early neutral evaluation and at trial in disputes between former cohabitees. She is also instructed at the pre-action stage, advising in conference and drafting particulars of claim and Part 36 offers.

Katie regularly advises and represents clients at all stages of financial remedy proceedings, from first directions appointments and financial dispute resolution hearings to multi-day final hearings and enforcement applications. She has recently been instructed in cases involving trusts and personal injury settlements.

In care proceedings, Katie acts at all hearings, from interim care order to final hearing.  She has also appeared in the High Court in a deprivation of liberty case concerning secure accommodation.

In private children proceedings, Katie is frequently instructed at dispute resolution appointments, fact-finding hearings and multi-day final hearings, including cases involving rule 16.4 guardians, allegations of abuse and parental influence. She has also appeared in an appeal concerning an interim contact decision.

Alongside her practice, Katie contributes to the Financial Remedies Journal, writing case summaries of recent judgments.

Prior to pupillage, Katie worked as a paralegal for a local authority, assisting with deprivation of liberty and care proceedings from PLO to final hearing. She also worked as a research assistant to Dr Rob George on his book, Wards of Court and the Inherent Jurisdiction, published in 2024.

In 2024, Katie was runner-up in the Young Association of Lawyers for Children Legal Advice Competition, advising on contact and parental responsibility in a sperm donor case, and won the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn Debate Shield. She studied the Bar Course with scholarships from Lincoln’s Inn, the Family Law Bar Association and the Leonard Sainer Legal Education Foundation.

In her spare time, Katie enjoys dance lessons, crafting, and spending time with her cat! She also volunteers with Bridging the Bar, an organisation that supports students becoming barristers from underrepresented groups at the bar, and mentors law students at the University of Reading and University of Nottingham.