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 has consistently been ranked in the legal directories and is noted as the ‘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 Borders (CFAB).

Hilka won the prestigious Jordan’s Family Law Associate of the Year Award in 2015, is listed in Spears 500 and ranked and recommended in the legal directories. 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 recognise her as “supportive, calm, collected, organised and reassuring. Her approach is always tactical, extremely detailed and tenacious, while also being gentle and fair. She plays the long game, does not make rash decisions and is always a few steps ahead of the other side.” “She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of adoption and surrogacy law … and is forensic, strategic and dedicated to her clients.”

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.