Maria Wright is a Senior Associate in our family department, specialising in children’s law, with a particular interest in international children’s law and child protection issues in both a domestic and international context.

She joined Hunters with a background working in private practice, specialising in public and private children’s law, international child abduction, jurisdictional disputes, wardship and cases involving issues of honour-based violence, forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).

In 2023, Maria was awarded her doctorate from the University of Bristol for her empirical doctoral research on child protection issues in an international context, and the operation of private international law, particularly the 1996 Hague Convention. Her doctoral research will be published in Bloomsbury’s Studies in Private International Law Series in the near future.

She has published widely on international children’s law in practitioner texts and academic journals and is the co-author of ‘International Issues in Family Law: The 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Brussells IIa’ (2015, Jordans).

Maria previously worked as the Senior Legal Advisor to Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB) the UK Branch of the International Social Service network. During this time, she developed a legal advice service, and delivered training for a broad range of stakeholders and local authorities on international issues in a child protection context.

Maria has been described by Chambers & Partners as a ‘phenomenal intellect‘ and ‘one of the cleverest family lawyers in practice‘, and by Legal 500 as ‘fantastically caring and bright‘.