Charlotte is an award-winning barrister with an extensive practice in complex trials and appellate cases, often encompassing ground-breaking points of law. She is known as “the feminist barrister” because she fights for women’s rights in and outside of the courtroom. Charlotte represents survivors of rape, domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour in the family courts whilst also challenging misconceptions across the sector. She uses her knowledge and experience of the justice system to advocate for legal change to ensure protection and support for victims and survivors.
As a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, she researches and teaches gender inequality under the law and female genital mutilation. Oxford University Press published her book, ‘FGM: When Culture and Law Clash’. Charlotte was awarded her Doctorate in FGM law from King’s College, Cambridge and she was a Visiting Researcher, Berkeley Law School and Harvard Law School.
For over a decade, Charlotte has fearlessly advocated for gender equality under the law. She was instrumental in a range of successful campaigns to change the law for women and children: the criminalisation of forced marriage, virginity testing, hymenoplasty and child marriage. She is a legal advisor to Our Streets Now and Plan UK, a campaign to criminalise public sexual harassment and Bloody Good Period, which seeks to make period products freely available in Britain. Charlotte is an advisor to ila, a start-up which founded the app, ALLY which provides safe spaces for victims of domestic abuse. She is an ambassador for DAME, a company providing sustainable period products.