Hilary was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2008, Northern Ireland in 2013 and England & Wales in 2013. She has also worked in a law firm in New York and the Innocence Project in Wisconsin and specialises in international family law, extradition, human rights, international criminal law and public international law.
Hilary specialises in international human rights and family law matters. She is instructed to bring cases on behalf of individuals before the European Court of Human Rights most recently against Ireland.
Hilary is a highly experienced family practitioner across three jurisdictions, covering all areas of family law.
Child Abduction
Hilary is regularly instructed in international child abduction, child relocation and international jurisdictional issues (habitual residence) before the High Court most recently involving Syria, Libya, South Africa, India, Tanzania and Australia.
Family Finance
Hilary acts for a wide range of matrimonial financial clients in particular high net-worth as well as modest clients with complex financial arrangements.
Some cases involve large property portfolios in several countries including USA, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey, Portugal and India. She receives instructions and lectures in Schedule 1 Children Act maintenance applications for unmarried parents
Children Law (Private)
She receives instructions and lectures in Schedule 1 Children Act maintenance applications for unmarried parents.
Children Law (Public)
Hilary represents local authorities and provides advice involving care and placement proceedings, Article 15 Brussels II revised transfers of international families most recently in the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Ireland.
She represents parents, guardians, intervenors and the Met Police involving children who have suffered long-term neglect and sexual abuse.
Court of Protection
Hilary successfully represented the family of a client (22) in the Court of Protection. He was seriously injured and left in a permanent vegetative state arising from an accident on a Russian Oligarch’s yacht in the Mediterranean.
His family as well as solicitors were court appointed deputies in both financial and property affairs and personal welfare. She is also involved in the ongoing international personal injury claim.
International Human Rights Law
Hilary has an in-depth knowledge of human rights abuses in many countries. In her capacity as a Human Rights lawyer in Ireland, she represented clients in complex and extensive litigation relating to victims of child abuse in Irish Reformatory and Industrial Schools operated by the Catholic Church. She conducted cases before the High Court in Ireland representing men who were abused as children in the Institutions.
Most recently she was involved in the investigation and victim reporting of 500 women survivors resident in the Magdalen Laundries. She personally dealt with 20 women whom received compensation in the sum of €100,000 euros each. She is currently instructed in two cases where day pupils were subjected to child abuse in state schools and are now suing the Irish government.
On the broader international front, Hilary has worked in a law firm in New York and also with the Innocence Project in Wisconsin.
Hilary was selected by the Bar Council of Ireland out of 80 applicants to work with the Innocence Project, USA led by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. The Innocence Project is a non-profit legal organisation that is committed to exonerating wrongly convicted people primarily but not exclusively through the use of post conviction DNA testing. She worked on several cases including drafting a direct appeal to the State of Wisconsin Court of Appeals District IV and drafting post conviction motions in murder and arson cases.
Hilary speaks French, Spanish and Irish.
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