Tampa Bay FBA Recognizes Kate Paine with Pro Bono Award

The Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association awarded Shook Senior Counsel Kate Paine with the 2025 Pro Bono Award. Paine was recognized for a case in which she obtained the return of three young children to their mother in France following a two-day trial. 

In 2023, Shook’s client was looking forward to her children returning home to France, after having spent the summer in Florida with their father. The children never arrived, and the client went to the police to file a report and began formal custody proceedings in France. 

The French Central Authority assisted the client with filing a return petition pursuant to The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Hague Convention is a multilateral treaty that establishes a legal framework and procedures for securing the prompt return of children wrongfully removed or kept away from their “habitual residence.”

In November 2024, the U.S. State Department reached out to Paine, who is part of the national Hague Conventional attorney network, about representing the client pro bono. Paine accepted and immediately filed a return petition in Tampa federal court.

The judge granted Paine’s request and ordered the U.S. Marshals to serve the father, confiscate the children’s passports and set a final hearing on the return petition, after which the judge ruled from the bench, delivering a complete victory for the client. 

“We are put on this earth to do good,” said Paine. “If I am not helping those in need, then the law degree I was so privileged to earn remains two-dimensional, like the paper upon which it is printed.”