Before choosing to become a lawyer, Sarah Mellish trained and worked as a secretary (Diploma in Secretarial and Business Studies) and as a librarian (Associate of the Library Association) in London and the South East. Sarah moved to Brighton and then worked, as a secretary, in a family law firm who allowed her time out to train as a legal executive. Sarah qualified as a legal executive in 1986 and as a solicitor in 1989. She was in private practice as a family lawyer for approximately 40 years. During that time she was a member of a number of Law Society Accreditation Panels to include Family Mediation, Family Law and Children/Child Care.
Sarah has worked as a mediator since 1998 achieving accreditation status in 2001 with Resolution. Sarah qualified to consult directly with children in October 2009. Sarah also qualified in other dispute resolution processes being collaborative law and family arbitration. For the last eight years of her professional life, Sarah was an equity partner in a small four partner specialist family law firm well known in the Brighton area. Sarah retired as a solicitor in November 2019 and from January 2020 has worked for West Sussex Mediation Service on a voluntary basis.