Kathleen Hallisey

Kathleen is a dual qualified solicitor (US and UK) specialising in abuse claims. Throughout her career, Kathleen has acted exclusively on behalf of injured people, including those who suffered catastrophic injury.

For the past ten years, Kathleen’s practice has focused solely on representing victims and survivors of abuse. In 2015, she was privileged to act on behalf of the first person to bring a successful claim against the Jehovah's Witnesses in the UK for child sexual abuse. A v Watchtower [2015] EWHC 1722 (QB)

Since then, Kathleen has acted on behalf of hundreds of victims and survivors of abuse, including those who were abused in various institutional settings, including the Catholic Church and the Church of England, the Scouts, private schools, local authorities and football clubs.

Most recently, Kathleen was humbled to be instructed by over 100 victims and survivors of abuse in the Jesus Fellowship Church (Jesus Army). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qejd0njpeo

Kathleen is an Advisory Committee member of the National Working Group against Spiritual and Ritual Abuse (NWG SARA), which works to raise awareness of spiritual and ritual abuse, create partnerships to support victims and survivors of this form of abuse and advocate for change to coercive control laws. She also works with NAPAC to increase access to justice for members of the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Kathleen is passionate not only about representing victims and survivors but also advocating for change, which led her to demonstrate outside Parliament about child sexual abuse, organise a London screening of the film Spotlight, coordinate an international conference on abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and become a trustee of 31:8, an independent safeguarding charity.

Kathleen believes in taking an individual and trauma-informed approach to working with victims and survivors in order to achieve what is possible within the confines of the law, whilst also supporting clients in finding ongoing support and community after the conclusion of their claim.

Kathleen can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on 07887 244 494.