St John's Buildings

Family - Finance, Family - Children

Helen practises in all areas of family law.

Helen has 20 years’ experience of financial remedy cases arising out of divorce and relationship breakdown. She has a solution-based approach to complex matters and a good eye for detail.

Her expertise includes:

• • Applications for injunctions for the preservation of matrimonial property and property held by third parties
  • Interim maintenance and orders for the payment of legal costs
  • Property and pension transfers under the Matrimonial Causes Act
  • Appeals seeking to set aside consent orders on the grounds of non-disclosure
  • Applications relating to property held in Trusts and the breaking up of family trusts
  • Dispositions of property under Schedules 1 of the Children Act
  • TOLATA applications involving the property of unmarried couples
  • Enforcement of financial orders and committals for contempt.Helen’s experience in children cases is extensive and she has appeared at all levels of the family court, frequently appearing before High Court Judges. She is regularly instructed to act on behalf of children, guardians, parents and step-parents, local authorities, intervenors and grandparents in both private and public law proceedings including care, adoption and special guardianship orders. She is a trusted and popular advocate who brings tenacity, attention to detail and a practical focus to complex issues.

    Her cases have included:

    • The rights of parents to be fully involved in all aspects of their children’s upbringing, including spending time with them and making decisions relating to their education and health
    • Denied or concealed paternity
    • Domestic violence, neglect and emotional abuse of children
    • Serious sexual abuse
    • Homicide and suicide of both parents
    • Child abuse within an international, cultural or religious context
    • The return of children from Hague and Non-Hague Convention countries
    • International adoptions
    • Child-trafficking and prostitution
    • Factitious illness
    • Parents and children with learning difficulties, disabilities, and genetic disorders affecting parenting
    • Physical abuse across a range from bruising to baby-shaking and complex brain injury
    • Multiple sibling deaths within the context of possible inherited genetic defects
    • Fabricated allegations of children towards a parent
    • Court of Protection work
    • Instructions from the Official Solicitor.

Helen was called to the Bar by Inner Temple in 1994.

Modern Greek, Spanish