Family Solicitors

We are pleased to announce that family solicitor Helen Newman was ‘Highly Commended’ for the International Family Lawyer of the Year Award at the Family Law Awards. This award recognises those who have made a major contribution to the field of international family law and led the way for other practitioners to follow.

Helen has over 40 years’ experience and has firmly established herself as a leading authority on international child abduction cases having had a case heard in the Court of Justice of the European Union which is now embedded into English and European law. Naturally her expertise extends to other cross border/children law matters such as cases involving a plethora of children cases that have an international aspect.

She is one of the longest serving solicitors on the International Child Abduction Unit (ICACU) accredited solicitors’ referral list, and is a founding member of the Child Abduction Lawyers’ Association (CALA).

Helen also handles cases from other jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, the USA and – notably – the Czech Republic and Slovakia where her work has been formally recognised. In November 2019 Helen was invited to speak at a conference at the Institute of Education of the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic in Omšenie to mark the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic, the Association of Friends of Children from Children´s Homes and the Judicial Academy of the Slovak Republic. At this event Helen – to her surprise – received an award from the Society of Friends of Abandoned Children and the Association of Family Judges in Slovakia for her "outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement for Children's Right not to be separated from their parents”. The award honours and highlights the work she does in this country for Slovak and Czech nationals concerning care cases and child abduction cases, and particularly notes her ”significant long-term assistance in advocating the rights of children in difficult life situations”.

Helen’s most recent work includes an incoming Hague Convention application and instruction from the applicant father through the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit (ICACU). It is a wrongful removal from Australia within the meaning of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The family lived in Australia and the father said that it was agreed that the mother and two children would go to Israel for a month on holiday, the mother argued that it was agreed that she and the children would move there permanently. Following her arrival in Israel the mother then decided she wanted a divorce. She then moved the children from Israel to England without the permission of the father or the Australian court. Whilst in England and despite Covid-19 lockdown the mother moved the children between different parts of the country. During the proceedings the parties were also negotiating divorce, financial settlement and issues relating to the children through lawyers in Israel.

Prior to the final hearing they reached an agreement which included the return of the mother and children to Israel once Covid restrictions allowed them to go there and also for the father to move there.


We are incredibly proud of Helen and her commendation which is testimony to the hard work she has carried out in the last year and in particular during the recent challenging times.