Deirdre Fottrell KC

Practice Areas

International Children Law

Private Children Law

Public Children Law

Career

Deirdre Fottrell KC specialises in the law relating to children.

She is also a leading practitioner in the field of surrogacy and assisted reproduction cases and those in which issues of legal parentage arise. Deirdre sits as a Deputy High Court Judge. She has appeared at all levels of court in the UK including the Supreme Court and the Privy Council and has litigated cases before the European Court of Human Rights.

Deirdre has particular expertise as appellate counsel in all areas of children law and surrogacy and she has appeared in the Court of Appeal on over 30 occasions between 2018 and 2024.

She has broad experience in complex public law cases in which allegations of sexual abuse, or fatal injury arise and appears in these matters in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal.

Deirdre was a university lecturer before coming to the bar. She has taught and published in the area of children’s rights, European human rights and international law. She held academic posts at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and the University of Essex. From 2002-2012 she was a visiting professor in human rights law at the School of International Affairs at Columbia University in New York. She has acted as a Council of Europe expert on the ECHR and in an advisory capacity to UNIFEM.

Children (Private Law)

In private law matters she has wide experience in residence and contact disputes acting for high net worth families. She acted for the children in the Al Maktoum litigation before the President of the Family Division in 2019-2021 and in the Court of Appeal. The litigation resulted in 11 reported judgments on aspects of international and domestic law.

She offers a vast knowledge of international child law having taught and published as an academic in this area for 15 years. She appeared in many of the leading cases on international abduction, international adoption and the application of 1996 Hague Convention in public and private law cases. She has acted in four international cases in the UK Supreme Court and was successful in the Privy Council C v C (Children) (Jersey) [2019].

Children (Public Law)

Deirdre appears in public law cases in the High Court and in the Court of Appeal and is instructed in cases which raise novel points of law or complex evidential matters. She has particular expertise on the interplay between the Human Rights Act 1998 and family law and in cases which involved international issues.

International Family Law

Deirdre has a particular expertise in international legal issues as they affect children. In 2015-2018 she acted in four cases before the UKSC in which the Court interpreted the 1980 Hague Convention and the Brussels II Regulation; Re R (Children) (Reunite and Others Intervening) UKSC [2016] 35 AC 76, 2 WLR, 1583, Re B (Habitual Residence; Inherent Jurisdiction) [2016] UKSC 4 [2016] 1FLR 561 and Re N (Adoption;Jurisdiction) [2016] UKSC 15 [2016] 1 FLR 1082.

Modern Families & Surrogacy

Deirdre is a leader in this field and has been involved in numerous reported cases involving modern family structures, surrogacy and fertility law. She has appeared in over 60 reported cases in the field of surrogacy and fertility law. She acted in AA v PP [2012] 2FLR in which the Family Court first used the HRA 1998 to purposively read s.54 HFEA making a parental order to a deceased parent. She also has particular expertise in fertility law and was counsel in the landmark decisions of HFEA Act 2008 (Re A and others) [2016] 1 WLR 1325 which provided guidance in declaration of parentage cases, she went on to act in 41 cases for families whose parentage had been denied owing to mistakes made by fertility clinics. In 2022 Deirdre obtained the first parental order for an adult in X v Y (Parental Order) [2023] 1 WLR 1493. Deirdre acted for the child in Re S (Inherent Jurisdiction; transgender surgery abroad) [2023] 4 WLR 25.

Appointments:

Deputy High Court Judge (2018)

Co-chair of the Association of Lawyers for Children (2017-2020)

Honorary Lifetime Vice President ALC (2023)

Professional Memberships

Family Law Bar Association

Association of Lawyers for Children

Human Rights Lawyers Association

Middle Temple

Awards

Education