Gordana Balać

Family Law

Gordana’s Family Law practice encompasses a range of private family work, including applications under the Children Act 1989 and Family Law Act 1996.

Gordana also undertakes financial remedies cases, and has successfully secured favourable outcomes for clients both following negotiation at the Financial Dispute Resolution stage and at contested Final Hearings.

Gordana’s work often involves advising and representing victims of domestic abuse. Having completed specialist Vulnerable Witness Training, Gordana is competent to recognise and accommodate the particular challenges vulnerable clients encounter when faced with court proceedings.

Gordana accepts instructions on both a legal aid and privately-funded basis, and has experience representing both applicants and respondents at all stages of proceedings. She regularly appears in Magistrates’ Courts and County Courts in the South East and beyond, and has appeared in the High Court for preliminary matters in urgent wardship applications and international abduction proceedings.

Immigration Law

Gordana’s Immigration Law practice covers a broad range of nationality, asylum and human rights cases, and she is regularly instructed to appear at First-tier and Upper Tribunals across the country.

Gordana frequently represents clients in gender-based violence, sexuality and political asylum claims, appeals against visa refusals, and human rights challenges under Articles 3 and 8 ECHR. She also has experience challenging Home Office decisions on modern slavery and human trafficking, and successfully resisting Civil Penalty immigration enforcement actions against alleged illegal workers.

Other Experience

Prior to joining the Bar, Gordana worked as a Legal Research Assistant in the fields of sex trafficking and forced labour, before interning at the Commonwealth Secretariat where she conducted research for ministerial consultation papers and developed a webinar series on the rule of law impact of Covid-19 across the Commonwealth.

Most recently, Gordana worked as a Litigation Officer in the Home Office’s Judicial Review Unit, where she reviewed and responded to judicial review challenges and instructed the Government Legal Department in a range of immigration matters.

Gordana volunteers as an Advice Line Volunteer with Rights of Women, a charity specialising in the provision of free legal advice with a specific focus on violence against women and girls. She also acts as Education Secretary of the Inner Temple Junior Bar Association, where she devises panel events and networking sessions to support junior members of the bar.