Practice Areas
- Court of Protection - Vulnerable Adult
- Financial Remedies
- International Children Law
- Private Children Law
- Public Children Law
Awards
Gray’s Inn: Bedingfield Scholarship
City Law School: Academic Scholarships for GDL and BPTC
Bar Council: 1st Prize, Law Reform Essay Competition
Harvard-UNICEF: Child Protection Certificate
New College, Oxford: Academic Scholarship
Experience
Year of Call: 2019
Education
City Law School: Graduate Diploma in Law and Bar Professional Training Course
Harvard University: Human Development, Psychology and Child Advocacy, M.Ed
University of Oxford: Experimental Psychology, BA (First Class Honours)
Profile
Clarissa joined chambers as a tenant in October 2020 after successful completion of her pupillage under Nicholas Fairbank, Sally Bradley, and Jacqueline Renton.
Clarissa is developing a practice across all of chambers’ core areas, including public, private and international children cases and proceedings for financial remedies. She was recently led by Cyrus Larizadeh QC in a 2-week fact finding involving allegations of non-accidental injury and complex medical evidence. She has assisted in training expert witnesses at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Before joining chambers, Clarissa was a Director of the School Exclusion Project. She provided pro bono representation for parents at appeal hearings. She also volunteered with the National Centre for Domestic Violence, drafting applications for injunctive relief for victims of domestic abuse.
Clarissa spent a year at Harvard studying the relationship between adverse childhood experiences, neural development, and the experience of children in the justice system. She subsequently won the Bar Council’s Law Reform essay prize, arguing for removal of the “reasonable punishment” defence to common assault of children.
In her spare time, Clarissa enjoys reading, live music, and trying out new recipes.
Professional Memberships
The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn
Family Law Bar Association