Adrienne Barnett is a lecturer in law at Brunel University London, teaching Family Law, Children and the Law, Land Law and research methods (with a focus on feminist theory and research methodology). She is also Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Brunel Law School. Prior to her academic appointment in January 2014, Adrienne practised as a barrister in England and Wales for over 30 years, specialising in family law, during which time she combined professional practice with academic study, teaching and research. Her specialist area of research, in which she has published widely over the past 17 years, is gender-based violence, particularly in the context of private law Children Act proceedings, for which she has undertaken qualitative and quantitative socio-legal research. Together with Professor Rosemary Hunter of Queen Mary, University of London, she undertook national survey research in this area for the Family Justice Council (FJC), published in 2013. She also has an interest in, and has published on, Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory. Adrienne has past and recent experience of working with policy-makers to effect changes in policy and practice arising out of her research. As a member of the former Domestic Violence Working Group of the FJC, she drafted the FJC’s response to the government’s consultation on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls in 2009. Her 2013 FJC research led to revisions to the Practice Direction (PD12J) that applies to private law Children Act proceedings where domestic violence is an issue. Women’s Aid drew substantially on her 2014 publication in their recent report, Nineteen Child Homicides, which underpins their current Child First campaign.
