Areas of Practice

Private and Public International Law

Commercial Law (including International Trade and International Arbitration)

Competition and Consumer Law

Wills and Estates; Equity and Trust

Family Law

Public and Administrative Law (including Immigration; Human Rights and Discrimination; Public Inquiries)

Inquests

Qualifications

COMMON LAW

LL.M (With Distinction), University of New South Wales, Australia (2009)

LL.B (With Upper Second Class Honours), University of Kent, Canterbury, UK (2003)

Completion of required subjects to be admitted to legal practice in NSW (With Merit) 

LPAB - LEC University of Sydney, Australia (2010)

CIVIL LAW 

Master’s Degree in Private Asset Protection (DESS / By Coursework) (With Honours), Université Bordeaux IV, France (2005)

Master’s Degree in Family Law (DEA / By Research) (With Honours), Université Lyon 3, France (2004)

Postgraduate Diploma in European and Comparative Law (With Highest Distinction), Université Bordeaux IV, France (2003)

Law Degree: Licence in Civil Law (With Honours), Université Bordeaux IV, France (2002)

About

Sandrine was admitted as a solicitor in 2010 and was called to the NSW Bar in 2011. She has a general practice with a strong focus on international law.

Sandrine regularly appears in the Supreme Court of NSW and Family Court of Australia in international succession and divorce matters. She also advises and appears in international commercial matters as well as in migration cases. Sandrine holds a keen interest in Human Rights which she studied in both Australia and France. 

Prior to moving to Australia, Sandrine worked as a Legal Officer with the Permanent Bureau of The Hague Conference on Private International law and in the banking industry in Paris. Sandrine holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in law, both in Common Law and Civil Law systems.

Sandrine is bilingual English and French, and has an intermediate level of Spanish.

Background

Prior to coming to the Bar, Sandrine worked as a Legal Officer with the Permanent Bureau of The Hague Conference on Private International law (Hague Conference).  In that role, she worked on a number of international family law Conventions and provided assistance to government authorities charged with implementing these Conventions in Member States.  Sandrine was also involved in the negotiation, and was a Member of the drafting committee, for what is now the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Spousal Maintenance. 

Whilst studying to qualify as an Australian lawyer, Sandrine worked at Clayton Utz and then with Holman Fenwick & Willan’s international commercial arbitration teams.

PUBLICATIONS

Droit de l'Australie (Chapter on Family Law and Succession Law, "La famille"), June 2016, LGDJ Lextenso.

International parenting and child protection matters beyond the specific issue of parental child abduction: The 1996 Hague Convention on the International Protection of Children, Children Australia, Special Issue 2013, Cambridge University Press.

Chapter on International Family Law, in The Practitioner’s Guide to International Law, the Law Society of New South Wales Young Lawyers (LexisNexis Butterworth, 2nd ed., 2014). 

Next Steps Regarding the New Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance: Introduction to the Future Implementation Guide and Implementation Issues, The Judges’ Newsletter on International Child Protection, HCCH & Lexis Nexis Butterworths, Vol. 14, Winter 2008-09.

La médiation familiale internationale dans le contexte des Conventions de La Haye, des perspectives de nouveaux développements, drawn up on behalf of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference of Private International Law, co-authored with Juliane Hirsch, in La Revue Scientifique de l'AIFI, Editions Y. Blais, Vol. 1 No 2, Autumn 2007.