Ranked as a “Leading Individual” by Chambers 2024 and as a “Recommended Lawyer” by The Legal 500 2025 Sulema is described by sources as a “fantastic, empathetic family lawyer” who “wins cases that other people think are impossible to win”.
Sulema undertakes all aspects of domestic and international family law including child abduction, child custody and the financial consequences of divorce and separation. She also acts for the victims of forced marriages, abandoned spouses and honour based violence. Sulema is a Resolution Accredited Specialist in Child Abduction and Forced Marriage & Honour-based Violence.
As a dual qualified solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and an Advocate of the High Courts in Pakistan, she frequently works on cross border cases with Pakistan and as an expert in Pakistani family law she regularly provides Expert Reports to courts across jurisdictions. She has acted in several reported cases in superior courts in both England and Pakistan and is Head of the firm’s Pakistan Desk.
Sulema graduated from Cambridge University in 2003. She completed her training contract and qualification at magic circle law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, before transferring into family law in 2010. She was made up to partner at Dawson Cornwell in 2021.
Prior to joining Dawson Cornwell, Sulema was a partner at AGHS Law Associates (the law firm of the late Asma Jahangir and of Hina Jilani) which is the leading law firm specialising in family law and human rights work in Pakistan. In Pakistan she acted in a range of family and constitutional cases in the High Court and also assisted in advising parliamentary bodies in drafting laws for the protection of women.
Sulema is a regular speaker at conferences and regularly appears on television (including BBC, ITV and Pakistani media channels), the radio and in the press. She has both written and been featured in articles for newspapers (including the Sunday Times, Dawn Newspaper, the News on Sunday) and journals on legal topics in Pakistan and in the United Kingdom.
Sulema is a visiting lecturer for “Gender and Development”, part of the MPhil course at the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge.
She is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers and Chair of the Forced Marriage Committee. She is a member of Resolution, LAWASIA, the Pakistan Bar Council and the Lahore High Court Bar Association.
Sulema speaks fluent Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi.