Sophia Roper KC

Call 1990 | Silk 2022

Sophia Roper KC | Call 1990 | Silk 2022

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Overview

Sophia’s specialist Court of Protection practice draws on her comprehensive knowledge of the law and extensive practical experience from private practice and public authority work. She is Joint Head of the Court of Protection team and is a counsel of choice for exceptionally complex and unusual Court of Protection cases, both welfare and property and affairs. Sophia draws on her knowledge of public and mental health law in other areas of her work, including inquests, community care and mental health. Recent legal directory says Sophia is “a class act: wise, clever and a formidable advocate”. She is also the co-editor of Medical Treatment: Decisions and the Law, 4th edition (a leading textbook on medical decision-making in its legal context).

“Sophia is fantastic. She is the right balance of commercial, sensitive to client needs and a brilliant advocate.”
Chambers & Partners

Sophia was recently instructed by the Official Solicitor in an unusual and challenging case where she successfully argued that an order made in the Scottish courts awarding guardianship of a vulnerable adult to her mother should not be recognised in English law on grounds of public policy: Aberdeenshire Council v SF & Ors (No. 2) [2024] EWCOP 10. Please see here for the judgment.

Experience and expertise

Sophia’s core practice is in the Court of Protection, and covers the whole spectrum of cases including medical treatment, personal welfare, deprivation of liberty and property and affairs.

Sophia specialises in medical treatment and welfare cases in the Court of Protection, on which she is regularly instructed by the Official Solicitor, Trusts and other health bodies, and local authorities, as well as by private individuals. She advises on urgent and other medical treatment cases in respect of adults and children, in the Court of Protection, Family Division, and under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court.  Sophia works mainly on more legally complex welfare cases, such as hybrid welfare and property and affairs cases, and cases involving a cross border issue, mental health or community care law, and potential Human Rights Act or judicial review claims.

Sophia also advises on property and affairs issues including deputyships, lasting and enduring powers of attorney, and all relevant capacity issues, including retrospective capacity assessments.

Sophia’s practice includes community care and mental health law, including funding obligations and disputes as to the public authority responsible for funding health and social care; she has been instructed to advise urgently where a family member has been detained under the Mental Health Act 1983, with no prior warning, and on cases involving displacement of the nearest relative under s29 MHA 1983.

Sophia undertakes inquest work, especially where there is a mental health aspect of the case. She has recently been instructed on an article 2 inquest arising out of a suicide where wide ranging criticism was made of multiple public services, and on an inquest arising out of a domestic homicide where both the victim and her partner had serious mental health problems.

Recent Cases and work of note

Sophia is currently instructed in a number of complex Court of Protection cases including cross border cases and claims for breach of human rights.   She has advised on a range of applications to carry out medical treatment on incapacitated adults and children, including emergency applications.  She has also acted in cases where two family members lack decision making capacity and the Court must balance the competing interests of each.

  • Re ZZ (Capacity) [2024] EWCOP 21: Sophia was instructed by the Official Solicitor on an unusual appeal from a decision of HHJ Burrows that ZZ had capacity to make decisions about engaging in sexual relations, marriage, and residence. The case has been remitted back to HHJ Burrows for the instruction of a second expert. Please see here for the judgment.
  • An ICB v G & Ors [2024] EWCOP 13: Sophia was instructed on behalf of a highly vulnerable young woman in lengthy proceedings involving multiple issues, including most recently, a four week fact finding hearing after her family members were alleged to have tampered with her vital medical equipment. The family members were also alleged to have breached injunctions made against them in the Court of Protection, and they had made counter allegations against staff at the nursing home where she lives, accusing them of poor care and covering up their mistakes with false allegations. Mr Justice Hayden delivered a lengthy and detailed judgment finding many of the allegations against the family members established. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust v JM [2023] EWCOP 38: Sophia was instructed on behalf of an autistic young man who had suffered severe trauma throughout his life. He required dialysis to stay alive but refused to accept it. The judge refused to permit life sustaining treatment to be imposed on him, recognising the importance of preserving JM’s autonomy in what sadly proved to be the last phase of his life. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Aberdeenshire Council v SF & Ors [2023] EWCOP 28: Sophia successfully argued that SF, a vulnerable adult from Scotland who had been placed in England under mental health legislation, retained her habitual residence in Scotland. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Re Patricia [2023] EWCOP 41, [2023] EWCOP 42: Sophia was instructed on behalf of a mental health trust providing treatment for a young woman with severe and long ensuring anorexia nervosa and other mental health diagnoses. Mr Justice Moor determined that it would be contrary to her best interests to be restrained for forcibly fed despite the high risk of her death as a consequence. Please see here and here for the judgments.
  • A Local Authority v H [2023] EWCOP 4. Sophia acted on behalf of a young adult who was a natal male and identified as female with multiple mental health diagnoses combined with profound trauma and abuse as a child. H had also been assessed as posing a risk to children. She was subject to a highly restrictive support regime but was compliant with it and doing very well. The court was determining H’s capacity to make welfare decisions, and had to grapple with both fluctuating capacity and the concept of executive dysfunction. Unusually, given the acute sensitivities of the case and H’s unusual circumstances, the case was heard in private with stringent reporting restrictions. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Re G (Court of Protection: Injunction) [2022] EWCA Civ 1312: Sophia is instructed by the Official Solicitor in a long running case with multiple judgments. In this appeal, G’s family members sought to appeal injunctions granted by Mr Justice Hayden. The Court of Appeal gave a definitive judgment on the law relating to injunctions in the Court of Protection, confirming that the court has jurisdiction to grant injunctions and clarifying the legal basis for these and the appropriate test. Please see here for the judgment.
  • A Local Authority v ST (Costs application) [2022] EWCOP 11: Sophia successfully sought costs where the local authority’s conduct had led to significant waste of time and resources. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Re CB [2021] EWCOP 4: Sophia was instructed by the Official Solicitor in a case where, unusually, the High Court gave detailed consideration to an application for welfare deputyship by a family member. The application was successfully resisted with provision for a series of protocols ensuring that the family member would be adequately consulted when decisions were being made about CB. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Guys And St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT) & Anor v R [2020] EWCOP 4: Sophia was instructed by the applicant Trust in the leading case on contingent (sometimes called anticipatory) declarations and orders, the law applicable where P has capacity at the time of the application but there is a high risk that they will lose it in circumstances not allowing time for a return to court. As with many such cases, this was an obstetric case. Mr Justice Hayden accepted the arguments advanced by the Trust as to the law that applied and the circumstances in which it is appropriate to make an application. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & Ors [2018] EWCOP 18: Sophia was instructed on an very urgent application to retrieve and store the sperm of a man who had been catastrophically injured in a motorbike accident. The application was granted; he sadly died shortly afterwards. Please see here for the judgment.
  • Re Alfie Evans: Re E (A Child) [2018] EWCA Civ 550; [2018] EWHC 818, [2018] EWCA Civ 805, [2018] EWHC 953 (Fam), [2018] EWCA 984 (Civ): Sophia was instructed by Cafcass on behalf of Alfie, a 21 month old child with a progressive neurodegenerative brain disorder.  His parents’ challenged the views of doctors, which the courts consistently endorsed, that it was in his best interests for all treatment to be withdrawn. The case raised multiple complex questions of law as well as attracting major media attention both in the UK and abroad.  Please see here and here and here and here for the judgments; the Supreme Court twice refused permission to appeal after considering written submissions from all parties: see here.
  • Great Ormond Street Hospital v Yates & Ors (Re Charlie Gard) [2017] EWHC 972[CD1]  (Fam): Sophia represented Charlie’s parents pro bono at the first instance trial of this high profile case. Charlie had a very rare mitochondrial DNA disorder which caused severe muscle weakness and progressive neurological damage.  A doctor in the US had offered to treat him with an experimental treatment which had not been tried before for patients with his condition but had a theoretical chance of securing some improvement in Charlie’s condition; his treating clinicians were opposed to this. The case attracted worldwide media attention, with interventions from the Vatican and the White House, and went to the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights.  Please see here for the judgment.

Prior to Serjeants’ Inn

Sophia previously worked as a health and welfare lawyer at the Official Solicitor’s office before she returned to the Bar. Whilst at the Official Solicitor’s office, Sophia had conduct of several cases of lasting significance including:

  • A NHS Trust v Dr A [2013] EWCOP 2442: an application to force feed an Iranian asylum seeker who had gone on hunger strike in an attempt to force the UKBA to return his passport. This is a critical case on the interface between the MHA 1983 and MCA 2005, identifying the new ‘gap’ between MCA Sch 1A and the MHA in the case of patients detained under s3 MHA who require a further deprivation of their residual liberty in order to receive treatment for a physical disorder. The case is an authority for use of inherent jurisdiction for patients who fall into this gap.
  • NHS Trust & Ors v FG (Rev 1) [2014] EWCOP 30: the leading case on applications for the court’s approval of obstetric treatment plans including caesarean section; Keehan J provided key guidance as to the procedure which applicants in these cases should follow. The guidance has since been applied to other serious medical treatment cases where deprivation of liberty or restraint is an issue.
  • AJ (Deprivation Of Liberty Safeguards) [2015] EWCOP 5: key judgment (described as ‘Neary No.2’) on articles 5(1), (4) and 8 ECHR, and the role of local authorities, RPRs and IMCAs in challenging a deprivation of liberty.
  • Re N [2015] EWCOP 76: the daughter of a lady with advanced multiple sclerosis sought withdrawal of CANH to enable her mother to die with dignity. This was a landmark judgment in the evolution of the law relating to withdrawal of CANH in those with minimal consciousness, as the courts had previously sanctioned withdrawal only in cases where the patient was in a persistent vegetative state.

Before working at the Official Solicitor’s office, Sophia worked as an advisory lawyer at Hampshire County Council, which has given her a personal understanding of how public authorities work and some of the difficulties they face in court proceedings.  She dealt with all aspects of community care and mental health law and enjoyed the breadth of practice. She was also responsible for providing advice on all aspects of data protection and freedom of information law to all departments within the authority.

Seminars / lectures

Sophia has given a number of talks and training seminars including a talk on The Rule of Personal Presence – Involvement of P in Court of Protection Proceedings; and training to IMCAs on medical treatment cases and how to be a litigation friend.

Reflections

The work I am lucky enough to do reaches far into people’s private lives and thoughts. Few of us ever expect to end up in court over matters such as where we live, what medical treatment we have, and who we see, marry or have sex with. At the same time, the prevailing mood of austerity in public services casts a long shadow into the courtroom and creates an underlying tension as to how people who need public services can best be looked after. For the lawyers, it is interesting and demanding work, but for those caught up in proceedings, it is an intrusive and stressful experience. Lawyers need to be sensitive to that.

“I love researching intricate legal points, but I always remain pragmatic and remember what my client wants and how the court will view what we do.”

Whichever party I am for, I like to consider the case in overview, to see where it is going and how to get the best result for my client in the long run. Sometimes there are other routes to a good solution such as some form of mediation, which may allow fractured relationships between public authorities and those who use their services to rebuild for the future, when the case is long over but those people still have to work together. Or there may be different legal routes using other areas of law (such as community care, judicial review, international treaty obligations), which can cut through the need for long and expensive court proceedings.

If we may be going to court, it’s my job to consider how the case will appear to the judge, who will have other sides to the story to think about. I love digging down to the bottom of a case, and I love researching intricate legal points, but I always remain pragmatic and remember what my client wants and how the court will view what we do. That’s the way I can fight my client’s corner best.

Recommendations

Sophia is recognised as a leading junior by both The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.

Recent directory editorial has included the following:

  • she cares about her clients deeply;
  • incredibly responsive and thoughtful;
  • she’s the person every instructing solicitor needs;
  • very good with clients;
  • she is a go-to advocate for really complicated welfare cases. She is great with clients and has an encyclopaedic knowledge;
  • a class act: wise, clever and a formidable advocate;
  • she works collaboratively and is great at coming up with unique practical solutions;
  • she is like the Encyclopaedia Britannica of COP cases;
  • always prepared;
  • very experienced;
  • is insightful and very perceptive;
  • very tactical in her thinking;
  • very responsive and takes a proactive role in cases;
  • she picks up very difficult matters very quickly;
  • really good at seeing the bigger picture in a case;
  • very sensible;
  • her advocacy is very impressive;
  • her knowledge of the law is excellent;
  • a calm and collected advocate;
  • she thinks deeply about cases and provides advice that is really concise and clear;
  • very responsive which when you are dealing with urgent, sometimes medical treatment cases;
  • a very supportive barrister;
  • her drafting is really good;
  • can put family members at ease;
  • has a real insight into how the official solicitor works in practice;
  • knows the strengths and weaknesses of the case;
  • thorough and tactically astute; and
  • she has a phenomenal knowledge of the law.

Publications and Articles

Sophia co-edited the fourth edition of Medical Treatment: Decisions and the Law with Christopher Johnston KC and written by 27 members of Serjeants’ Inn.

A test for our time, STEP Journal
Consent to treatment—autonomy of disabled persons (B v D (by his litigation friend, the Official Solicitor) and another), LexisNexis PSL
Decide for yourself, Solicitors Journal
Power of Attorney still fit for purpose amid the big intergenerational wealth shift – Lawyers, Wealth Briefing

Academic

Sophia studied at King’s College, Cambridge, doing an English degree (MA) before studying Law, in which she has a First. She also has a postgraduate Bachelor of Civil Laws degree (BCL) from New College Oxford.

PRivacy

Sophia adopts and adheres to the provisions of the privacy notice which can be accessed here.

Further Information

For further details of Sophia’s practice please click on the links to the left or contact a member of the clerking or client service team.

Bar Council Membership No: 26029
Registered Name: Sophia Roper
VAT Registration No: 263408901