Accredited member of the Law Society’s Children Pane

Holly is a solicitor with over 10 years’ experience of working in family law. Holly has been accredited on The Law Society’s Children Panel since 2016. Holly has experience of representing children from new born to teenagers, and experience of representing vulnerable parents including where the official solicitor is involved or where English is not their first language.

Holly currently specialises in all aspects of care proceedings representing children, parents and other parties who are either joined or invited to intervene in the proceedings. Holly’s experience also includes applications for Special Guardianship Orders, Placement Order and Adoption Order applications, secure Accommodation applications, Deprivation of Liberty Applications, Recovery Order applications, Wardship applications and Private Law applications.

Cases

• Re: S – Holly represented a Mother resident in France during care proceedings. There were concerns about child trafficking and the Local Authority made an application for Wardship which was unsuccessful. Mother was successful in having the child returned to her care in France.
• Re: M – Holly represented a child in care proceedings and in separate proceedings for an application for Deprivation of Liberty by the Local Authority, there were concerns the child had sexually abused his siblings.
• Re: MW – Holly represents a competent child within care proceedings, which involves concerns regarding physical abuse.
• Re: S – Holly represented a sibling group of children where the Father had committed suicide. The children made allegations of physical and sexual abuse against both parents. There was a lengthy fact finding hearing, where the Mother was found to have inflicted the injuries. The children were subject to final care orders.
• Re: S – Holly represented foster carers who successfully obtained a Special Guardianship Order for the child that had been in their care for a number of years under a Care Order.
• Re: S – Holly represented a Father in care proceedings, where there were a number of children involved. The concerns were regarding drug use, neglect and poor home conditions. Father was successful in having his child returned to his care.
• Re: M – Holly represented a vulnerable Mother in care proceedings, who required the assistance of an intermediary. Mother had, had 5 previous children removed from her care due to concerns of neglect, drug use and mental health. Following a number of successful assessments including a period of time within a foster placement, Mother was successful in retaining the care of her child.
• Re: Z – Holly represents a young Slovakian Father in care proceedings through the Official Solicitor. The case involves concerns of neglect, parents ability to meet the child’s needs and engagement with professionals.

Testimonials from other Legal Professionals

• “Holly’s client service and general level of service and level of sophistication are very strong. Holly is a gentle representative, but do not be fooled by this as she is a very good advocate and is very knowledgeable. She represents her cases well.”
• “Holly is great. She is a good example of one of the younger members that Ryan and Max have been working with. I led her on a case and she’s very good. She’s very willing to learn and is developing her practice very well, and she is very good with clients. This is what strikes me about that firm; they’re very mindful of their clients and if a client is worried or unsettled, they know they can contact their solicitors and speak to them. She went on maternity leave a while and has slotted back in again.”
• “Holly is competent and personable, and she’s good with clients. I think she’s compassionate and you’ve got to remember that side of the job when dealing with family work.”
• “I’ve done a couple of cases with Holly, some of which were quite complicated and messy, but she is very efficient. She is very gracious and she deals with things in a sensible and conciliatory way. She is very organised and she doesn’t miss a deadline. I think they’re all committed and hardworking and she falls into that category; she’s easy to get on with and she is someone who gets it done.”
• “She’s very sensitive to parents, caring towards clients and proficient and professional with regard to the cases she presents.”