Family Defense Clinic

Introduction

The Family Defense Clinic’s mission is to work through both direct representation and systemic advocacy to combat the indignity and injustice routinely experienced by families involved with the child welfare system. The Clinic strives to keep families together by protecting parents' rights to due process and advocating for the services to which they and their children are entitled.

Clinic students participate in a year-long, 14-credit course that examines family regulation policy and practice. The clinic's primary focus is on preventing the unnecessary break-up of indigent families and assisting separated families to reunite by representing individual parents of children who are in, or at risk of, foster care placement. The clinic also undertakes projects designed to address systemic problems in the foster care and Family Court systems. The clinic involves a mixture of fieldwork, seminar, and participation in simulated litigation exercises.

The Family Defense Clinic has pioneered an interdisciplinary model that integrates social workers into legal teams to ensure that representation includes securing appropriate social services and providing meaningful support for family preservation efforts. Graduate social work students join the seminar and fieldwork components of the clinic, and work in teams with law students. The clinic considers the differences in the approaches of the fields of law and social work, and explores various methods of collaboration.

Course Description

Fieldwork

(a) The heart of the clinic is the opportunity to represent individual clients in Family Court. Clinic students work with lawyers from the Family Defense Practice of Brooklyn Defender Services as counsel for parents of children in or at risk of entering foster care. The cases include child neglect and abuse cases, termination of parental rights proceedings, and permanency planning hearings. We also represent parents in administrative proceedings to clear records of child abuse and maltreatment.

Students, under supervision, are directly responsible for all aspects of case planning and litigation. The fieldwork includes extensive client contact, interviewing, counseling, investigation, legal research, motion practice, discovery, out-of-court advocacy, and preparing for and conducting trials and dispositional hearings in Family Court. It is common for students to argue motions and conduct contested hearings before Family Court judges. Students pursuing their master’s degrees in social work will be part of the legal team representing each client and will assist in identifying and analyzing issues, formulating plans to achieve clients' goals, assessing clients’ strengths and needs, and accessing appropriate services.

(b) Clinic students also have the opportunity to work with faculty, non-profits, and community organizations on projects aimed at transforming child welfare policy and practice. In addition, the clinic litigates appeals aimed at developing case law in the field of family regulation.

The Seminar

The seminar will generally meet twice each week for two hours. The early part of the fall semester will be devoted to study of the foster care system and the laws governing child protection and involuntary termination of parental rights. Special attention will be given to the roles of lawyers and social workers representing families and to interdisciplinary approaches to legal representation.

As the year moves forward, the seminar will be used to support and enhance both kinds of fieldwork activity, focusing on the strategic and ethical issues that arise in students’ cases, and studying a range of approaches to advocating for systemic change. Simulation exercises will focus on litigation skills, including interviewing, developing a theory of the case, direct and cross examination, and oral argument. Throughout the year, the seminar will critically assess family regulation policy and practice. The seminar will also hear from a range of experts in the field, including those with lived experience of the child welfare system.

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes for the course include: developing a wide-range of litigation skills, such as building client relationships, client counseling, legal research and writing, developing and implementing case theory, direct and cross examination, oral argument, and strategic decision-making; gaining knowledge of the American child welfare system and of family regulation law and policy; enhancing communication and self-reflection skills; and developing cross cultural competence.

Administrative Information

Students must be prepared to make a full-year commitment to the program.

Application Procedure

Students should submit an application, resume and a transcript (which can be unofficial) online via CAMS. Applicants may be contacted  for an interview.

* 14 credits include 3 clinical credits and 4 academic seminar credits per semester.

** Evidence is preferred but is not a prerequisite.