Children – international and abduction

A growing number of families have links to more than one country, and children increasingly move between countries as their parents relocate and their family structures change. Penningtons Manches Cooper’s highly ranked family law team has huge experience in assisting international families with issues relating to the care of and responsibility for their children.

Child-focused advice for international families

Our specialist lawyers advise on the wide spectrum of issues that can affect international families and their children. We pride ourselves on helping parents to find solutions focused on the specific needs of their child. We have excellent links with lawyers in other jurisdictions through our membership of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL), International Bar Association (IBA), and International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA) and we work frequently with our counterparts in other countries to ensure that agreements reached in England can be enforced around the world. We can also help to ensure that overseas agreements are registered and enforceable in England.

Our team, which is based in London, Oxford, Reading and Guildford, has particular expertise in representing parents who wish to move with their children from England to another country, or who have concern that such a move is not in their child’s interests. Where possible, we help them to reach agreement with the other parent and try to ensure that family relationships survive, whether or not the relocation takes place. If an agreement is not possible, we represent parents in court proceedings. We also have extensive experience of cases involving allegations of child abduction and have acted in many of the leading cases in this area.

…an exceptional ability in international children cases.

The cross-border movement of children is an increasingly specialist field in which our team has developed an exceptional reputation. One of our partners, Anna Worwood is an author of the leading publication on international relocation, Relocation A Practical Guide (Family Law 2013), an updated edition of which was released in 2016.

One of our key strengths is the ability to draw on our vast experience of such cases to provide tailored and child-focused advice to meet the unique needs of individual families.

We offer an online system that can help our clients to understand their legal position, prepare for their first meeting, and provide us with the information required to maximise the value we can deliver. We invite you to get started online.

How we help our clients

Relocation of children from England (leave to remove)

Relocation of children to England

Child abduction

International surrogacy and adoption

International same-sex families

Overseas families residing in England

Mediation for international families

A joined up, thoughtful and careful approach is embedded through the culture at Penningtons, which I think shows in their reputation and results.

They provide exceptional knowledge and strong guidance.

It’s a fabulous team, as well as doing fabulous financial work they also do exceptional children work.

Recent work highlights

‘All issues’ arbitration

Acting for the mother in the ground-breaking case of AI v MT, where all issues between the husband and wife, including abduction, residence and contact proceedings, were successfully referred to ‘all issues’ arbitration in another jurisdiction.

International adoption and surrogacy

Advising an Anglo-Swiss couple on an international adoption and the issues arising from a surrogacy agreement entered into in the state of Nevada.

Complex private children arbitration

Representing our client in respect of a domestic children matter, in which we assisted the parties in obtaining a private arbitration to settle the child arrangement.

Child abduction to Middle East

Obtaining urgent orders after the mother relocated to a Middle Eastern country with their child without the father’s consent, including for her to appear at the High Court and an interim freezing order on her London property.