MSB Solicitors

Family

Head of Family

Emma Palmer is highly respected amongst her profession and currently heads up a team of six.

Emma became a partner in MSB in 2017.  She is a leading expert in new emerging areas of family law being a resolution accredited specialist in child abduction, forced marriage and honour based violence.  She has been an accredited specialist in Child Abduction since 2015 and is one of only 5 lawyers outside London to be an accredited specialist in honour based violence and forced marriage.

Emma is also on the Children Panel and therefore able to represent children in these very difficult and complex areas of family law. Emma represents children in complex international care cases.

Emma has always worked within family law. She has experience in all areas and is able to advise clients when they require advice on multiple areas of family law. In recent years Emma has specialised in cross jurisdictional cases and complex children cases representing both parents and children. Emma has established an international family team at MSB which has a solid reputation locally and nationally. Emma’s client’s range from CEOs of international businesses to home makers. Emma has experience of working in the court’s inherent jurisdiction and under a multitude of international agreements such as The Hague Convention 1980 and 1996, Brussels IIR and The Hague Convention on inter-country adoption. During 2018 she personally dealt with cases in Poland, Cyprus, NZ, Australia, America, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Angola, Russia, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Romania and Somalia and dealt with 2 reported cases.

Forced marriage, FGM & honour based abuse - Emma has represented a number of children and parents in cases of forced marriage, female genital mutilation and honour based abuse. This complex work is emotionally and culturally sensitive and requires an extremely high level of client care, especially when representing children. The use of interpreters and translation services is frequently required and adds to the complexity as it requires focus to make sure that the client is truly understanding what is being discussed. By way of example Emma successfully opposed a forged marriage protection order on behalf of a parent as it transpired that his words had been incorrectly interpreted during the initial discussion with the local authority and police. This was because the word he used in his first language did not translate directly into English. This was only discovered because of the level of detailed analysis Emma undertook in that case.

Child abduction & relocation - Emma has developed a particular niche in relocation cases and child abduction work. Emma’s clients are not only local clients but instruct her nationwide and internationally.  Emma has successfully defended applications to take children out of the jurisdiction temporarily, on one recent case she successfully prevented children being temporarily removed despite the mother having return tickets, strong connections to England and the children’s Guardian being supportive of the temporary removal. Emma advises on child abduction cases for parents accused of abducting their child and also for those left behind. Emma sirs on the advisory panel of a child abduction charity. She has drafted relocation agreements and advised couples of the laws in this complex area before they move abroad.

International finances/jurisdiction work. Emma is frequently instructed to advise on jurisdiction arguments and options for both divorce (including high net worth cases of over £5,000,000) and children cases. Her cases are predominantly in the High Court due to complexity.

Reported cases - Emma has been involved in a number of reported cases over the last year involving child abduction under The Hague Convention 1996, The Hague Convention 1980 and FGM and wardship under the court’s inherent jurisdiction.

Training - Emma is often asked to provide training to organisations including CAFCASS (regionally and nationwide), Solicitors and charitable organisations on child abduction, forced marriage and honour based abuse.

Emma is fully committed to training the next generation of lawyers. Recently a Solicitor trained by Emma was retained in the team following qualification and has just had their first reported case.

Emma is passionate about family law and her experience and knowledge reflects this passion. She is committed to her clients who are grateful for the understanding way she advises and guides them through cases which are always emotionally charged and complex.

English

Law Society Children Panel member

Resolution accredited specialist in child abduction, domestic violence

Resolution accredited specialist in forced marriage and honour based violence

Member of Child Abduction Lawyers Association

Committee member of Liverpool Law Society Family Sub Group

Director of Liverpool Law Society

University of Leicester 2003-2006    LLB (Hons)

College of Law - Legal Practice Course   2006-2007 (Commendation)

College of Law - LLM Masters Degree 2008-2010