Christabel McCooey

Christabel is a specialist family law practitioner with a strong interest in securing justice for each person she represents.

She remains mindful of the intense stress that litigation and the court process can generate for clients and is able to guide them smoothly through their case with timely advice and expertise.

Christabel is experienced in matrimonial finances cases, including property disputes domestically and overseas; contested deeds of trust; intervenor applications and all other aspects of matrimonial finance. Many of her cases involve disputes over the division of the family home in cases involving children. Christabel is committed to settling a case where that is fair; her negotiation skills with opponents have resulted in many hotly contested cases settling at court.

Christabel also specialises in private child contact cases at all stages. She effectively assists parents in finding a consensual plan for co-parenting outside of court where that is possible through her Direct Access work. If court has become unavoidable, Christabel advocates fearlessly for her clients and is deftly able to challenge unacceptable behaviours for her clients in court. Christabel’s children work includes child arrangement orders; fact-finding hearings; coercive and controlling behaviour; parental alienation and relocation by parents.

Before the Bar, Christabel worked on projects internationally including challenging Palestinian home demolitions with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions in Jerusalem and against the death penalty in in New Orleans for the Capital Appeals Project. She was also recently a delegate on the Colombian Caravana, focusing on indigenous rights and the role of truth and reconciliation in the peace process, for which she jointly authored a report presented to the UN.

Christabel sits as a fee-paid Employment Judge and a Mental Health Tribunal Judge.

Christabel’s other interests include ultra-marathons (100km), Ju Jiitsu, creative writing and wheel-throwing pottery.

• Family