Family Law

Lisa Parkinson is a family mediator with Bristol FMA. She has been a practising mediator since 1978 and is also a trainer, co-founder and a Vice President of FMA and member of the Family Justice Council’s ADR Committee. Also a founder member of the European Forum for Family Mediation Training and of World Mediation Forum. She is a member of WMF’s Scientific Committee for the 2012 Conference in Spain.

Lisa has given family mediation training and workshops in many other countries. In 2011 she had the great privilege and enjoyment of invitations to Brussels and The Hague (international cross-border mediation), Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia and the Ukraine. She is a member of the Hague Conference’s “Group of Experts” on the Guide to Good Practice in mediation under the 1980 Child Abduction Convention (due to be published by June 2012).

Lisa is author of books and articles on mediation including Family Mediation (Family Law, 3rd edn, 2014). She also contributes regularly to Family Law, International Family Law and foreign language journals. Her family mediation book has been published in five foreign language editions.

Bianca has a busy and diverse practice in all aspects of children law, as well as applications under Part IV Family Law Act 1996. She regularly acts in public law cases, representing local authorities, parents, grandparents, and guardians. In private children law, Bianca has expertise in cases concerning allegations of rape and domestic violence, as well as those involving intractable contact and residence disputes. She is very experienced in dealing with cases with an international element.

Bianca is the head of the Alternative Families Practice Group in chambers and has a particular expertise in surrogacy law and legal parenthood. She is highly knowledgeable about both the case law and the statutory provisions in this complex area of law, and has lectured and published articles on the subject. Most recently, she appeared in the reported cases of  A & B (No 1 Fact-finding judgment) [2015] EWHC 1059 (Fam) and A & B (No 2 – Parental Order [2015] EWHC 2080 (Fam), which concerned an international surrogacy arrangement in India.

In 2015, Bianca won the Jordan Publishing Family Law Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year Award.