Hilka Hollmann

Hilka specialises in international and domestic adoptions and surrogacy, all aspects of international and domestic children law, including the international movement of children, abductions, jurisdictional disputes, and complex care proceedings, often involving the most serious allegations of sexual abuse, non-accidental injuries, factitious illness and radicalisation. She is ranked in legal directories as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ and noted as a ‘top expert in international adoption and surrogacy cases’, ‘an impressive advocate who deals with some of the most complex cases for children’ and for her ‘razor sharp mind’.

Throughout her career, Hilka has practiced children and family law and has been involved in many reported and high-profile cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal. She joined Freemans from a specialist family law firm in 2016 and became a Partner in 2018.

Hilka is on the Law Society’s Children Panel which means that she has had specialist training to represent children in court proceedings, either directly or through their children’s guardian. She is a member of the Association of Lawyers for Children, Coram BAAF – the British Adoption and Fostering Organisation, the Child Abduction Lawyers’ Association, Resolution and is a Resolution accredited adoption and child abduction specialist. Hilka was also one of the co-authors of Resolution’s response to the Law Commission’s consultation on proposed changes to the current surrogacy law, and she is a trustee for Children and Families Across Boarders (CFAB).

Hilka won the prestigious Jordan’s Family Law Associate of the Year Award in 2015 and has consistently been ranked and recommended in legal directories. This year, Legal 500 have described her as having ‘that uncanny knack of being able to see solutions to the most intractable problems facing her clients’, ‘hugely experienced and confidence-inspiring’, and ‘a brilliant tactician and a tenacious lawyer … but not to the point of losing sight of what can be achieved by a collaborative approach.’

Chambers and Partners recommend her as a ‘superb lawyer whose particular skill is her ability to represent children’ (2018), that ‘she is tactical in her approach but never loses sight of what is important to the people she is representing.’ (2017), ‘incredibly rigorous and hard-working’ and ‘her ability to absorb information is superb’ (2019). This year’s entry describes here a “very good at strategically approaching cases … [with] great soft skills but also a great grasp of the law; her legal analysis is absolutely excellent. She operates to an extremely high level.’ ‘She’s also really approachable, client- and child-focused, amazingly personable and always goes the extra mile. The level of commitment, strategic knowledge and fantastic overview blew my mind. She’s an outstanding solicitor.’

When not at work, Hilka enjoys spending time with family and friends, a good meal, the theatre, playing the piano and travel; and, time and inclination permitting, keeping fit through boxing and yoga.

Hilka is bi-lingual English/German, speaks French and some Russian.