About
Jemma has been a partner in Goodman Ray since 2008. She has an international reputation in the field of private law children work, which she has specialised in since she qualified as a solicitor in 2004. She has a particular expertise in international children cases including Hague Convention matters, cross border adoption, surrogacy and all aspects of the movement of children.
At the beginning of her career, Jemma practiced largely in public law children work and developed her unique expertise in complex child law cases involving child abuse and domestic abuse. She gained a strong grounding in evidence management and significant expertise in understanding and engaging with complex medical evidence, psychological and psychiatric assessments of parents and children. Now Jemma’s practice is almost exclusively private law children advisory and representative work in Children Act, Leave to Remove, International movement of children (including relocation, international adoption and surrogacy), and Abduction. She is unique in the market place, having had a strong background in public law children and her clients benefit enormously from this expertise.
Alongside this area of practice Jemma has developed a practice in general private law, instructed directly for competent children and young adults, including children of high profile families whose parents are involved in lengthy and hostile child arrangement proceedings.
Jemma is also a leader in the field in adoption, surrogacy and modern families. She is often instructed in complex adoption matters regarding the placement of children or the regularisation of informal arrangements made overseas. Furthermore, Jemma is one of the leading solicitors on matters relating to surrogacy, fertility and modern families (including donor conception). She has a particular interest in the recording of and access to information about donor conceived children and children born by way of surrogacy. The practice varies widely throughout the world and there is little research about this and how this affects children and young people. Modern family law is a self-contained area of practice which sits alongside private law children work.
Case highlights in this area include a group action on behalf of many families in what became known as the ‘parenthood consent cases’ or the ‘alphabet cases’ and Jemma continues to represent families referred from clinics where errors have been identified, she has been instructed in well over 40 cases.
There are a growing number of cases involving transgender children and the use of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgery in respect of transgender children. This is a very important area of private law work which is developing rapidly especially in light of the changes in medical practice following the closure of the GIDS clinic and NHS England’s development of regional services for children and young people resulting in many families using private unregulated providers or going abroad for treatment.
Jemma has been instructed for both parents and the child in many of these cases which have been before the High Court, including one at the moment which has attracted considerable media attention.
By way of summary, over the past three years Jemma’s practice has included cases in the following areas:
- Complex child arrangements (including relocation cases),
- Child protection,
- Wardship,
- Prevention of child abduction (including location orders/passport orders/port alerts),
- Hague Convention 1996 (including Article 11 emergency jurisdiction & jurisdiction transfers etc)
- Hague Convention 1980 and 1996,
- Forced marriage protection orders,
- Surrogacy (international and domestic)
- Adoption (international and domestic)
- Co-parenting and donor arrangements
- Transgender children.
In December 2024 Jemma co-authored her book “Child Migration: Family and Immigration Laws” published by Bloomsbury Professional in December 2024. The foreword was written by Mrs Justice Theis in which she said about Jemma “Together with Jemma Dally…..they jointly take the reader through the wide field of child migration before turning to consider immigration law in the context of inter country adoption, Kafalah and international surrogacy arrangements. These chapters benefit from the ‘real life’ practical experience both Kathryn Cronin and Jemma Dally have had advising and being instructed in many of the leading reported family cases, where the clarity they have each provided regarding the relevant immigration status of the parties and/or the children has played such an integral part in the outcome in those cases.”
Additional expertise/relevant information
Jemma has spoken at many domestic and international conferences about her children work and provided training in this area. She has a strong international reputation being an active member of the IAFL, the ALC and Resolution. She has also worked with the HFEA and the British Fertility Society. Jemma is also involved in matters of policy and regulation in this area, including sitting on the HCCH working group on the drafting of an international instrument on the recognition of legal parentage, including parentage established by way of surrogacy. She has also been invited to participate in the development of the EU Commission’s parentage regulation.
Notable cases
Surrogacy:
Re Z (Surrogacy: Step-parent adoption) EWFC 24 – The first case and a landmark judgment in which the court was asked to consider the making of a state parent adoption order to one of the intended fathers, in circumstances where the surrogate had not given her consent to the making of a parental order and whether in these circumstances an adoption order could be made. The adoption order was refused. I acted for the surrogate. This case was shortlisted for the Jordan’s Family Law Case of the Year 2024 and attracted significant press interest.
N (Adoption – Surrogacy) [2024] EWFC 41 – The first case in which the court dispensed with the consent of a surrogate to make an adoption order in circumstances where the surrogate did not consent to the making of a parent order, so this order could not be made. N, an 18 year old child, born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement. Before birth, N’s surrogate mother lied to the intended parents that she had miscarried the child. The intended parents found out that she had lied and at birth initiated private law proceedings – when N was 18 months old, he was transferred to the care of his intended parents under a child arrangements order. No parental order could be made because the surrogate refused to give her agreement. Just before N’s 18th birthday an adoption application was made. T
Re C (Surrogacy: Consent) [2023] EWCA Civ 16 – shortlisted for the Jordan’s Family Law Case of the Year 2023
X v Z (Parental Order Adult) [2022] EWFC 26 – the first case in which the court has made a parental order in respect of an adult child.
X (A Child: Foreign Surrogacy) [2018] EWFC 15
H (A Child: Surrogacy Breakdown) [2017] EWCA Civ 1798
Re AB (Surrogacy Consent) [2016] EWHC 2643 (Fam)
Z, Re (Foreign Surrogacy: Allocation of Work : Guidance on Parental Order Reports) (Rev 1) [2015] EWFC 90 (16 November 2015)
Parentage:
- Re L, Re M (Declaration of Parentage) [2022] EWFC 38 – the first case where a declaration of parentage has been made in respect of an adopted adult child to correct the initial registration to include the birth father’s name.
- Y v Z [2022] EWFC 157 – DOP in first case where there was no WP and PP forms and the I/C did not include a parenthood declaration.
- Re Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Cases P, Q, R, S, T, U, W and X) [2017] EWHC 49 (Fam)
- K (Human Fertilisation And Embryology Act 2008) [2017] EWHC 50 (Fam)
- In the Matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case K) (No.2) [2017] EWHC 783 (Fam) – judicial review
- In the matter of HFEA 2008 (Cases A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H Declaration of Parentage) [2015] EWHC 2602 (Fam) – a landmark case which provided guidance in declaration of parentage cases. I went on to act in more than 45 cases for families whose parentage had been denied owing to mistakes made by fertility clinics. This case attracted significant press issues and I was interviewed as Times Lawyer of the Week for my work on these cases.
Adoption:
- Re G (Adoption; Notice Under s35 ACA 2002; Revocation of Placement Order) [2021] EWFC 93
- AX v BX & Ors (Revocation of Adoption Order) [2021] EWHC 1121
- Re T (A Child: Refusal of Adoption Order) [2020] EWCA Civ 797 Prospective Adopters v Sheffield City Council [2020] EWHC 2783 (Fam)
- Re R (Leave to Oppose The Making of an Adoption Order) [2020] EWFC 97 Re T (A Child: Refusal of Adoption Order) [2020] EWCA Civ 797
- ZH v HS & Ors (Application to Revoke Adoption Order) [2019] EWHC 2190 (Fam)
- LR v A Local Authority & Ors (Application to Terminate Appointment of Guardian) [2019] EWHC 2190 (Fam)
- Re RP (A Child) (Foster Carers Appeal) [2019] EWCA Civ 525 Re N (A Child) [2016] EWHC 3085 (Fam)
Transgender cases:
- Re S (Inherent Jurisdiction: Transgender surgery abroad) [2023] EWHC 347 (Fam)
- O v P & Q [2024] EWHC 1077 (Fam)
Private law:
- L v M and Ors [2024] EWHC 1336 (Fam) – Forced Marriage protection, Passport orders and Wardship
- F & M v Anor [2017] EWHC 949 (Fam)
