Barrister Profile
UNA MCGURK
Year of Call: 2002
Main Areas of Practice
Family Law
Biography
Una is a family law specialist with a practice in which she enjoys the considerable mix of care, adoption, divorce, matrimonial finance and private law children order applications. Una deals with all aspects of private and public family law, in all courts, appearing frequently in complex and sensitive cases. Having represented the Health and Social Care Trust from an early stage in her career at the Bar she made the decision to commit to representing parents, other family members and children, both individually and through the Guardian ad Litem. She has regularly received instructions to represent parents who have learning disabilities. Una’s experience includes cases of serious non-accidental injuries; fabricated illness; sexual abuse/rape; adolescent parents; vulnerable adults; and removal from the jurisdiction. In such cases the evidence is complex, requiring a forensic approach. She is experienced in a wide variety of appeals in the County Court and High Court.
Qualifications
Una is a member the member of the Family Bar Association and is responsibble for organising seminars and continuing professional development within the group. Una is a member of the Pro Bono unit. She serverd as secretary to the unit in 2003/04 and has been an active member throughout her career at the Bar. She has represented clients in the Employment Tribunals and in the High Court Family cases in a pro bono capacity.
Experience
Divorce and Ancillary Relief: In Una’s ancillary relief practice her cases routinely involve substantial assets, corporate assets and issues relating to land and foreign property. She strives to give realistic and sensible advice in a format in which complex issues can be more easily understood by the lay client. Una also deals with cases involving financial provision for children and partition proceedings.
Mental Health: Una is instructed in cases involving vulnerable adults and children. These areas often cross over with her substantial practice in care order proceedings.
Cases:
Glenn; in re (residence order application) [2009] NIFam 24
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust v SM & another; in re KW, EW & MW [2010] NIFam 10