Practice Overview

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 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 has litigated cases before the European Court of Human Rights. Deirdre has particular expertise as appellate counsel and has appeared in the Court of Appeal on well over 20 occassions between 2018 and 2023. In 2018 she acted for the appellants in the UKSC in the case of Williams v the London Borough Of Hackney.

She has broad experience in public law cases in which allegations of sexual abuse, radicalisation or fatal injury arise.  In private law she acts in residence, contact and relocation disputes. 

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 since 1995.  She has taught at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and the University of Essex.  From 2002-2012 she was a visiting professor 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.

Chambers and Partners

Star Individual

2023

Legal 500

Leading Silk

Tier 2 - 2023

Chambers and Partners

Star Individual

2022

Legal 500

Leading Silk

Tier 2 - 2022

Chambers and Partners

Star Individual

2021

Legal 500

Leading Silk

Tier 2 - 2021

Chambers and Partners

Star Individual

2020

Legal 500

Leading Silk

Tier 2 - 2020

Chambers and Partners

QC of the Year - Shortlisted

2019

Family Law Awards

QC of the Year - Finalist

2019

Bar Pro Bono Awards

Family QC of the Year

2018