LEGAL LEARNING SESSION: Cross-border social work post-Brexit

As a solicitor in private practice Maria represented clients in a wide range of matters encompassing international child abduction, jurisdictional disputes concerning children, wardship, committal, forced marriage, and public and private law proceedings. She acted in a number of high profile cases, including the seminal case of Re B (A Child) Habitual Residence: Jurisdiction [2015] EWCA Civ 886, where the Supreme Court case examined the use of the Inherent Jurisdiction in relation to the removal to Pakistan of a child born to a same-sex couple. She also represented the Appellant Mother in Re E (Children) [2011] UKSC 27, a Supreme Court case concerning the correct approach to the Article 13 (1) (b) exception in proceedings under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. In 2015, Maria worked as judicial assistant in the Court of Appeal to Lady Justice Black and Lord Justice McFarlane. In 2016 she was awarded a studentship by the Economic and Social Research Council to pursue an MSc and PhD with the University of Bristol School of Law. Her study examines the operation of instruments of private international law (Brussels IIa and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention) in care proceedings taking place in England. The research is conducted in collaboration with Cafcass and CFAB. Maria has also published widely on children’s law with an international element. She is the co-author of a leading practitioner’s text, ‘International Issues in Family Law The 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Brussels IIa’ (2015 Jordans). Maria has also published extensively on the use of Special Guardianship in care proceedings with an international element, transfers of jurisdiction, recognition and enforcement of orders and the protection of children where jurisdiction is in issue.

Nadine provides expert advice on CFAB’s inter-country social work cases. She originally qualified as a social worker in Germany and is a registered social worker in the UK. Nadine has worked for a number of London local authorities helping unaccompanied children seeking asylum. She also managed the London Children’s Project, raising awareness of the international elements facing local children’s services. Nadine joined CFAB in 2004.