Introduction
Michelle Christie is a leading specialist in the law relating to children, with extensive experience across both Public and Private Law proceedings. Her practice encompasses complex and high-profile cases in which she represents the full range of parties, including parents, local authorities, Children’s Guardians, and children, often via the Official Solicitor.
Renowned for her meticulous preparation, and robust and skilful cross-examination, Michelle has the ability to distil complex issues swiftly and execute her case with precision and impact.
Private Law
Michelle is a specialist Private Law Children barrister with 27 years’ experience acting in high-conflict, high-stakes family proceedings. She is known for combining clear, direct advocacy with a calm, relatable manner that reassures clients and keeps cases focused on what matters most: workable outcomes that protect children and stand up to scrutiny.
Solicitors regularly instruct Michelle for her realistic and well founded advice and her ability to reduce costs by cutting through noise in emotionally charged disputes. She is particularly effective where previous agreement has proved impossible, frequently negotiating detailed, robust consent orders that anticipate future flashpoints and reduce the need for repeated litigation.
Areas of expertise:
Michelle is regularly instructed in cases involving:
- Contact disputes, including introduction/re-introduction and resisted contact
- Change of residence and shared care arrangements
- Parental alienation / malign influence
- Allegations of domestic or sexual abuse
- Safeguarding concerns, including social care involvement
- Mental health, substance misuse, and complex welfare issues
- International relocation and jurisdictional complications (where relevant)
Notable very recent private law cases:
- M v M [2025] – Married parents: successfully secured (i) change of a child’s surname and (ii) restrictions on the Father’s exercise of PR, achieving the sought outcomes against professional recommendations.
- N v N [2024] – Child arrangements proceedings involving complex issues of gender identity and self-harm, requiring careful case management and welfare-led advocacy.
- T v T [2024] – Obtained a shared care shared care arrangement in a protracted parental alienation case where contact had been extremely limited for two years.
- X v X [2025] – High Court matter advancing a novel legal argument concerning disclosure from earlier proceedings in the context of an ongoing coronial inquest.
Michelle brings precision, authority and strategy to every case where she is instructed and is trusted to handle the cases where the detail is decisive and the consequences are life-changing.
Public Law
Michelle’s Public Law practice includes some of the most challenging and sensitive proceedings, involving:
- Complex care proceedings
- Fabricated and induced illness
- Infant deaths and near-fatal injuries
- Serious sexual and physical abuse, including intra-familial and inter-sibling cases
- Cases with concurrent criminal proceedings
She is frequently instructed in matters that are both high-profile and medically or factually complex and has been led by distinguished silks including Jo Delahunty KC, Leslie Samuels KC, Cyrus Larizadeh KC, Darren Howe KC, and John Vater KC. Michelle also acts as a leading junior in complex multi-party cases.
In all areas of her practice, Michelle combines tenacity with empathy, ensuring that every case receives the highest quality advocacy, sound judgment, and a steady hand through even the most emotionally charged proceedings.
Pro bono work
Michelle is very much committed to pro bono representation and is willing to continue to represent clients in circumstances where funding is no longer available and the interests of justice require continued representation.
Cases
C (A child : Fact Finding : Delay) [2014] EWFC B72 (21 November 2014) ED, Re [2015]
EWFC B84 (29 May 2015)
NORHAMPTONSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL v (1) MZ (2) FD (3) FL (2015)
P (A Child), Re [2018] EWCA Civ 720 (11 April 2018)
Education
De Montfort University (1998)
Inns of Court School of Law (1999)
Appointments and Memberships
Family Law Bar Association
Middle Temple
Testimonials
Michelle is popular with Solicitors and Lay Clients as a result of:
• Her forensic skills and exceptionally thorough case preparation and analysis.
• The quality of her preparatory and written work, which has often attracted praise from the judiciary in judgments.
• Michelle’s cross-examination techniques of experts and other witnesses.
• Michelle’s exceptional advocacy skills are coupled with a very personable and kind approach to lay clients, which assist greatly in making the court process less daunting.
