Mary-Rachel has a busy Court of Protection practice and acts in cases concerning a wide range of health and welfare matters. Mary-Rachel acts for vulnerable adults (via their litigation friends), children, family members, local authorities, Integrated Care Boards and NHS Trusts. She has experience acting in serious medical treatment cases, including:

• Acting for an NHS Trust in an application for P to undergo investigations and treatment for possible womb cancer;

• Acting for P in an application for him to be conveyed to hospital for urgent medical investigations and treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and leg ulcers;

• Acting for the parents of a three-month old baby in an application by an NHS Trust to withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment. 

Mary-Rachel also has extensive experience of acting in hoarding cases and in cases involving the deprivation of liberty of children and young people, both in the Court of Protection and under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court.

Her key cases include: 

• Acting for the Official Solicitor as P’s litigation friend in MB v PB [2022] EWCOP 14, a fact-finding hearing in which Sir Jonathan Cohen found that P had been subjected to coercive and controlling behaviour by her husband of over 40 years; 

• Acting for the Official Solicitor as junior counsel in Re HD (Capacity to Engage in Sexual Relations) [2021] EWCOP 15 - the first case (at first instance) to consider the test for capacity to engage in sexual relations set down by the Court of Appeal in Re JB [2020] EWCA Civ 735;  

• Acting as junior counsel for the first intervener, RESPOND, when Re JB was appealed to the Supreme Court ([2021] UKSC 52). 

Mary-Rachel acts for children and vulnerable adults in Human Rights Act damages claims against local authorities, including claims arising out of delays by local authorities in issuing care proceedings, and Article 5 claims for unlawful deprivation of liberty. 

Mary-Rachel represents disabled children and their parents in judicial review proceedings against local authorities and ICBs relating to their care packages.  She is happy to provide early advice in such proceedings and has a good track record of obtaining favourable settlement agreements.

Mary-Rachel has advised and acted in judicial review proceedings relating to the provision of accommodation and support to vulnerable adults and children, under the Care Act 2014 and Children Act 1989. 

She has successfully secured interim relief for vulnerable children and their families in a number of claims. Examples include:

• R (AT & KT) v Lewisham LBC: Claim for judicial review of the local authority’s failure to conduct an assessment under section 17 Children Act 1989 and to provide interim accommodation to a homeless single mother and her young children; settled following the authority’s agreement to conduct an assessment and provide accommodation.
• R (N) v Greenwich [2016] EWHC 2559: Successful judicial review of refusal to provide accommodation under section 17 Children Act 1989 where the mother did not have the right to rent (reported in Legal Action 2016/17, Dec/Jan, 17-21; J.H.L. 2016, 19(5), D71-D72)

Mary-Rachel has experience of acting in judicial review matters raising community care and discrimination issues. She has appeared both led and unled in the High Court and has appeared as junior counsel in the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Mary-Rachel acted as junior counsel (led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC) on a case of international importance brought by the family of an Irishwoman who emigrated to England in the 1950s, Margaret Keane. Mrs Keane’s family appealed against a May 2020 ruling of the Consistory Court of the Diocese of Coventry which had denied them a gravestone of their choice over their mother’s grave. The Court of Arches confirmed that the decision of the Chancellor not to permit the family’s inscription in Irish-only (without an English translation) was irrational under the common law, and in breach of the family’s right not to be discriminated against under the Human Rights Act. The case attracted substantial attention in Ireland, Britain and internationally.

Mary-Rachel was instructed by Just for Kids Law (led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC) in a judicial review challenge to the use of children as covert human intelligence sources or ‘child spies’. As a result of the litigation and the campaign by the charity, the Home Office agreed to overhaul its Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) Code of Practice to make clear that children  can only be used in exceptional circumstances, with significant new safeguards to protect them. The Home Office’s significant changes to the Code of Practice meant that the legal action settled prior to the hearing.

Mary-Rachel was proud to act as junior counsel (led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC) in Re: Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission [2018] UKSC 27, a landmark case concerning access to abortion for women in Northern Ireland.

Mary-Rachel has represented parents and local authorities in appeals against Education, Health and Care Plans in the First-Tier Tribunal. She welcomes instructions in related judicial review proceedings.

Mary-Rachel acted as junior counsel in Module 8 of the UK Covid Inquiry (investigating the impact of the pandemic on children and young people) for Article 39, a charity which advocates for the rights of children living in institutional settings. Prior to that, she acted for two core participants in Module 3 of the UK Covid Inquiry (investigating the impact of the pandemic on the healthcare system). 

Mary-Rachel also appeared as junior counsel (led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC), in two strands of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse: in the Nottinghamshire strand, acting for 44 complainant core participants; and in the Child Sexual Exploitation by Organised Networks strand, acting for the Centre for Women’s Justice.