Katie is a Partner in the Family team and a children's law specialist. She is one of only a few family law solicitors in the jurisdiction who only practices in children's law and domestic abuse cases.
Katie is an expert in complex private children's law cases, acting for parents, grandparents, and other family members regarding arrangements for children. Katie predominantly acts in cases where there is high conflict, substance misuse, criminal allegations/convictions, abuse towards a child or other parent, mental health issues, etc.
Katie is an expert in relocation (moving the child within or outside of the jurisdiction) and child abduction including preventative measures.
Katie has recently assisted clients by:
- representing a Father to locate his child who had been abducted from his home by the Mother, and thereafter opposing the Mother's application to relocate the child to Spain. In this case, the Mother made domestic abuse allegations of the highest nature. Katie successfully succeeded in ensuring no findings of abuse were made against the Father and the relocation to Spain was refused. An Order was made for the child to reside with his Father.
- representing a Father in the High Court to seek the prevention of medical treatment that was determined to be unnecessary for the child.
- representing an Uncle and Aunt to obtain care of two children upon the passing of the Father. The case involved significant allegations of abuse by the children and concerns regarding the alcohol dependency of the Mother. Katie obtained rare Orders that prevented the Mother from attending the children's schools and contacting the children by any means until they were 18 (the children were only 7 and 9 at the time the Orders were made) and the diminishment of the Mother's Parental Responsibility.
- representing a Mother after she had findings made against her of parental alienation (turning the children against their Father) whilst she was acting in person, which resulted in the removal of the children from her care and very limited prospects of unsupervised contact between her and the children in the future. Katie successfully obtained a progressive order to return to a shared care arrangement.
- representing a Father with schizophrenia and the paternal Grandparents to provide for the children to be able to see the paternal Grandparents and the Father on a supervised basis.
Katie is also a specialist in dealing with cases of domestic abuse including advising on protective measures and the impact of such abuse on the arrangements for children.