Practice Profile: For the last 10 years, Lisa Vara has dedicated her career to representing survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking in complex family law and matrimonial matters in the five boroughs of New York City. She has developed significant expertise in handling family law cases with an international jurisdictional component, such as cases of international parental kidnapping.
Leadership, Pro Bono and Civic Work: Cases of international parental kidnapping are notoriously challenging, especially when they involve abduction to a country which is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. In 2016, Lisa achieved her most recent victory in such a matter: She led a team of pro bono attorneys to successfully reunite a battered Mexican mother with her two daughters after her abusive husband abducted the children and sent them with a third party to Egypt. She handled the matter in New York while her client resided abroad without the ability to come to New York.
