Hilla Etsiony – Kliffer, Law Firm and Mediators

Hilla Etsiony-Kliffer Law & Mediation Firm is a boutique practice specializing in family and inheritance law, with particular expertise in complex, high-conflict family disputes. The firm is widely recognized for its work in parental alienation, contact refusal, and complex parenting disputes, combining strong legal advocacy and strategic litigation with a deep understanding of family dynamics.

The firm represents clients from the negotiation and planning stages through litigation, court appearances, expert examinations, and appeals. Adv. Hilla Etsiony-Kliffer, the firm’s founder, has been a social worker since 2000 and an attorney since 2009. She holds an LL.B. from Sha’arei Mishpat Academic Center and a Social Work degree from Tel Aviv University. She is a certified family mediator and couples counselor and completed a two-year postgraduate program in child and adolescent therapy.

Prior to private practice, she served as a child investigator and regional supervisor of residential care institutions. She later focused on family and inheritance law, combining her experience with children and families with legal practice. Before establishing her own firm, she practiced at the office of Adv. Uri Zafat and served as a teaching assistant to Prof. Ayelet Blecher-Prigat in family and inheritance law. Her multidisciplinary background in law, social work, mediation, and counseling enables her to address both the legal and interpersonal dimensions of family disputes.

Parental Alienation & Parenting Disputes

A central area of the firm’s practice is parental alienation, contact refusal, and parent-child estrangement. These highly sensitive cases require both strong litigation skills and an understanding of child development and family systems.

The firm represents clients in cases involving impaired or severed parent-child relationships and carefully distinguishes between parental alienation, contact refusal stemming from other causes, loyalty conflicts, and other family dynamics. Each matter is assessed within its broader family context. Recognizing that delays can have lasting consequences, the firm emphasizes early intervention, strong evidentiary foundations, collaboration with experts and treatment professionals, and strategic case management. It handles contact restoration proceedings, parenting-time disputes, urgent applications, expert appointments, professional opinions, and expert and witness examinations.

Adv. Etsiony-Kliffer also lectures and trains attorneys in this field and has taught a professional course on parental alienation through the Israel Bar Association.

Practice Areas

The firm advises and represents clients in:
Complex divorce proceedings, Parental alienation and contact refusal, Parenting-time and parenting disputes, Child and spousal support, Division of assets and property disputes, Businesses, companies, and assets in divorce proceedings, Marital and prenuptial agreements, International child abduction matters and Hague Convention proceedings, Will contests, Estate-related claims and disputes concerning the scope of an estate, Disputes between heirs, Estate distribution agreements, Wills and mutual wills, Estate administration, Negotiations in inheritance disputes. The firm also handles family-related matters involving kibbutzim, including mediation between heirs, co-ownership disputes, and issues concerning common-law spouses.

Wealth Transfer

The firm advises families with substantial assets and businesses on intergenerational wealth planning, including transfers of assets and businesses, intra-family gifts and loans, marital agreements, wills, and succession structures. Its approach focuses on preserving family wealth while identifying and reducing potential sources of future conflict.

Strategy & Litigation

The firm approaches every matter strategically, considering not only legal issues but also the broader impact on children, assets, and the family system. It emphasizes thorough preparation, strategic analysis, litigation excellence, discretion, and close client support. At the same time, Adv. Etsiony-Kliffer’s experience as a mediator enables the firm to pursue negotiated solutions when they best serve the client’s interests and provide long-term stability.

Gsharim

In 2020, Adv. Etsiony-Kliffer established Gsharim, a center that provides legal, mediation, therapeutic, and financial support for families experiencing periods of change and crisis. Gsharim brings together professionals from the fields of finance, insurance, therapy, mediation, parenting guidance, and family economics to provide multidisciplinary support during periods of family transition and crisis.

Professional & Public Activities

Adv. Etsiony-Kliffer lectures and provides professional training in family law, particularly in the areas of parental alienation and complex parenting disputes. She also appears in the media as a legal commentator and publishes professional content and podcasts on family and inheritance law. Over the years, she has participated in joint lectures with journalist Linoy Bar-Gefen on the subject “Between a Lasting Power of Attorney and a Will.”

Alongside her professional activities, Adv. Etsiony-Kliffer provides pro bono legal services in complex cases for individuals of limited means.

Selected Cases

Parental Alienation and Parent-Child Estrangement Cases
Complex parental alienation and contact refusal cases involving significant deterioration, and in some instances complete severance, of the relationship between children and one of their parents, often involving experts and treatment professionals.
These cases raise complex questions concerning the child’s wishes and expressed views, the source of resistance to contact, the impact of parental conflict on the child, and the appropriate means of restoring the relationship while safeguarding the child’s welfare and emotional well-being. In such matters, the firm manages the legal proceedings alongside ongoing engagement with treatment professionals and other experts, with the goal of identifying and addressing the causes of estrangement.

Parenting Disputes Involving Children with Special Needs
Complex parenting disputes involving children with special needs, raising issues relating to child welfare and protection, parental capacity to meet the child’s unique needs, parenting-time arrangements, parental decision-making, information sharing, and the realization of rights and benefits.
These proceedings require an approach that integrates the child’s needs with the legal framework, the development of gradual and proportionate solutions, and ongoing collaboration with professionals. This is one of the areas in which the combination of Adv. Etsiony-Kliffer’s legal expertise and extensive experience as a social worker finds particularly meaningful expression.

Litigation in Property Disputes and Divorce Agreements
Complex proceedings involving divorce agreements, property rights, and claims seeking to set aside agreements, including matters requiring analysis of expert opinions and resolution of complex legal and evidentiary issues. In these proceedings, the firm conducts critical evaluation of professional opinions, develops evidentiary foundations, formulates clarification questions, and prepares extensively for the examination and cross-examination of experts and witnesses.