Barrister

About

Before coming to the bar, Olivia Bliss worked at the Women’s Legal Centre in South Africa. She assisted the inquiry into sexual violence in one of South Africa’s largest townships and researched and drafted requests to the African Court of Human Rights.

Olivia is a warm and friendly practitioner who prides herself on forming strong working relationships with both lay and professional clients.

Practice overview

Olivia Bliss is a dedicated child law practitioner. Her specialism is care proceedings, where she represents local authorities, parents, and children. She has acted in numerous lengthy hearings involving complex expert evidence, intervening parties, and children giving evidence.

Olivia is experienced with Human Rights Act claims arising from care proceedings, particularly the use and misuse of Section 20 accommodation. She has drafted many schedules of findings and skeleton arguments in respect of these claims.

Olivia is often instructed in complex private law matters. She represented a mother in same-sex private law proceedings, which centred around the grant of parental responsibility to the non-biological mother. She is familiar with HEFA 1990 and 2008 and is particularly interested in the law concerning modern families and same-sex couples.

Olivia is also interested in cases with an international element. She received funding from the FLBA to attend the Polish-English Bar Conference in Warsaw and has acted on behalf of Polish nationals within care proceedings.

Olivia has appeared before the High Court on many occasions. She has secured location and collections orders for local authorities and has been instructed in injunctive proceedings involving medical treatment and Brussels II Revised.