Charlotte Proudman

Dr. Charlotte Proudman is a multi-award-winning barrister, academic, campaigner and author specializing in family law, violence against women and children, and gender-based violence.

As the founder of Proudmans, a specialist firm advancing survivor-centered family law practice, she represents women and children in complex proceedings involving rape, domestic abuse, coercive control and child sexual exploitation. Her work is recognized for precedent-setting appellate cases that have shaped how abuse is understood in family law.

She has been recognized as a Leading Junior (Legal 500), Woman of the Year 2025 (Women & Diversity in Law Awards), and Advocate of the Year 2023 (Women & Diversity in Law Awards.

In May 2025, her book, "He Said, She Said: Truth, Trauma and the Struggle for Justice in the Family Court," was published. Drawing on real cases, the book exposes how myths about credibility, trauma and so-called “parental alienation” distort decision-making in the family courts and sets out a clear case for trauma-informed reform.

Her appellate work includes a landmark Court of Appeal case clarifying the treatment of rape and coercive control, and a successful High Court appeal in which she represented Kate Kniveton, former MP, establishing a precedent against survivors subsidizing their rapist’s costs of child contact. She has acted in dozens of reported cases for domestic abuse survivors, particularly those denied special measures, and in groundbreaking cases recognizing gaslighting as domestic abuse and permitting disclosure of findings of domestic abuse to professional regulators.

In 2022, she founded Right to Equality, a non-profit organization driving legislative reform in family law. The organization was instrumental in the government’s recent announcement to repeal the presumption of parental involvement. She is co-director alongside Dr Adrienne Barnett.

Academically, she is a Senior Research Associate at the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College, Cambridge. She holds a doctorate in FGM law and policy, and an MPhil in Criminology from Cambridge. Her earlier book, "FGM: When Culture and Law Clash," was published in 2022.