Children & Youth Law

PENN LAW FACULTY

Penn Law Adjuncts & Lecturers

TOLL PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER PARTNERS AT PENN

POSSIBLE PRO BONO PLACEMENTS FOR STUDENTS INTERESTED IN JUVENILE JUSTICE INCLUDE:

City of Philadelphia Law Department
Community Legal Services, Inc.
Defender Association of Philadelphia - Child Advocacy
Education Law Center - PA
Juvenile Law Center
New York Legal Assistance Group
Penn Law Custody and Support Assistance Clinic (CASAC)
Penn Law Prisoners Legal Education & Advocacy Project
Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth
Public Counsel Law Center
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP)
Southern Poverty Law Center
Support Center for Child Advocates
The Field Center for Children's Policy Practice & Research

Penn Law Courses

More than 50% of the marriages in this country end in divorce; the percentage is even higher in many countries outside of the United States. Besides its emotional and financial impact on the divorcing parties, the transfers of wealth attendant to marital dissolutions have substantial economic consequences on society at large with the property subject to distribution in divorce expanding to include career achievements or career potential, celebrity status, enhanced earning capacity, license and degrees. This course provides exposure to the dynamic process of representing the spectrum of clients, including same-sex couples, in a dissolution of marriage case and the unique issues, such as dealing with the media, gag orders, and seeking to close courtrooms to shield children when representing high-profile and high net worth individuals. Topics are covered from the perspective of a practicing lawyer and include: initial client interviews and retention, jurisdiction and choice of law issues, child custody and visitation, the interplay between the Court and matrimonial attorneys, mental health issues, temporary and permanent maintenance for spouses and support for children, awards of attorney and expert fees, the nature of property subject to division and distribution, the valuation process, unique issues raised by certain types of property, effects of bankruptcy, pre- and post-marital agreements, negotiating and drafting marital settlement agreements, pre-trial discovery preparation for and conduct of trial, and Federal tax aspects of marital dissolution. Guest lecturers will include a sitting matrimonial judge, a forensic accountant and a former client.

This course examines the interactions and conflicts between law and ethics in the context of reproduction, reproductive technology, family formation, and child rearing. In recent decades, regulators, lawmakers, ethicists, and others have struggled to understand and, in some cases, contain developments in how babies are made, how families are formed, and how parents care for their children. As evidenced by frequent media sensations such as the birth of mega multiples or women giving birth well past menopause, controversies regularly arise about advancing reproductive technologies. These debates take place in the social, political, and medical arenas with varying consequences for individuals and the larger society. During the semester, we will study how the law has responded to changes in family formation, babymaking, and child rearing. More specifically, we will grapple with the relationship between law and ethics and seek to determine whether the law of babymaking and child rearing is or should be ethical. Through a study of topics such as disputes over parentage for children created using technology, fetal rights, sex selection, and limitations on access to parenting, we will evaluate where law and ethics intertwine and where they depart from each other. While we will study cases and learn black letter law, the class will also focus squarely on ethics, particularly feminist bioethics, and how policymaking does and does not reflect the ethical imperatives in any given situation. The final grade will be based on performance on exercises conducted in and out of class, attendance, participation.

3 sem. hrs.
This survey course provides an introduction to the legal regulation of the family. Topics include restrictions on marriage; rights and obligations imposed on married couples; legal problems facing same-sex couples and nontraditional families; premarital and separation agreements; the legal construction of parenthood; the legal ramifications of alternative reproductive technologies; and the various incidents of divorce, including property distribution, spousal support, custody, and child support.

3 sem. hrs.
This course will examine selected topics relating to why, when and how human beings create other human beings. Feminist legal and philosophical perspectives will be featured in a close analysis of legal conflicts and the roles both sexes and the latest technologies play in contemporary reproductive practices. We look back to traditional regimes for regulating childbirth, pregnancy, contraception, and abortion; but also at current practices and ahead to novel regimes for regulating the use of genetic and other biological enhancements that permit control over how children look, behave, feel, achieve and endure. The primary texts will be Judith F. Daar, Reproductive Technologies and the Law, and a supplement of recent feminist, bioethical and other normative and policy perspectives. Students are encouraged to complete their senior writing requirement in connection with this course; but may take a final essay examination.

Child abuse and neglect is a serious and chronic national problem that demands increased academic and clinical attention. Such child maltreatment gives rise to complex medical, psychological, parenting and legal issues. Unfortunately, the structures in place to respond to children who have suffered abuse or neglect are disjointed, and many of the providers of services to children at risk are inadequately trained and lack needed experience in collaborating to address the children’s immediate and long-term needs. Dr. Christian, a pediatrician, and Director of the Child Abuse Referral and Evaluation Clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Professor Lerner will offer an innovative, interdisciplinary, clinical seminar to bring together medical students, residents and/or fellows, and graduate social work students with upper class law students to study and compare the context, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect; the legal, social services and medical systems’ responses to child maltreatment; and the treatment and advocacy skills necessary to help maltreated children survive and prosper. In the process, the students will jointly examine and grapple with important professional responsibility issues that arise in such interdisciplinary work. In addition to academic study of these issues, the students in the Clinic will collaborate to provide legal representation and other forms of advocacy as child advocates or Guardians Ad Litem for children who come into the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Family Court’s dependency court rooms.

How are juvenile offenders treated differently from adult offenders? To what extent should they be? These questions provide the focus for examining how the state treats the "aberrant" behavior of children. Students will be introduced to the legal, social, and historical underpinnings of the juvenile justice system in the United States beginning with founding of the juvenile court in 1899 and then-held assumptions about the nature of childhood. We will examine how in the late twentieth century the juvenile court has undergone both ideological and institutional change from its original form. These shifts in theory will be outlined with specific attention to several U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have significantly affected juvenile court, as well as psychological and social science data that have a continuing impact on juvenile court practice and jurisdiction. Throughout the course, students are invited to consider and imagine a future role for the juvenile court as it goes forward. Each class will be co-taught by two adjunct professors who are practitioners in the filed of children's law with particular emphasis in juvenile justice. During the last five classes, weekly reading assignments will be developed by student led teams, who will work with the professors in advance to select appropriate topics, relevant caselaw or other materials, as well as appropriate videos. Student teams will be responsible for leading class discussion on their designated topic. Each student is expected to complete a paper of approximately 10-15 pages in length, on an aspect of the juvenile justice system, as well as short reaction papers and legislative drafting exercises throughout the course. The topic of the paper must be approved by one of the course instructors. Students wishing to satisfy the law school's writing requirement must notify one of the instructors by the fourth week of class.

This course will cover the theoretical, doctrinal and practical issues in mental health law, with special reference to the criminal context. It will also be of interest to students interested in bioethics, health law, and family law.

This course is designed to examine the allocation of power between children, parents, and the government both within and outside of the family unit. Rather than providing a survey of family law, this course focuses upon primarily poverty law issues that arise from public institutions designed to promote social welfare and to protect and nurture young people and their families. Students should enter the course with a basic understanding of Constitutional law, along with a desire to explore social welfare through a variety of mediums. This course focuses upon the child welfare system. We begin with the foundational cases that establish both the legal rights and liabilities of parents. We will also examine recent federal legislation regarding termination of parental rights and touch upon adoption policy as it intersects with the foster care system. In exploring the dependency and child welfare systems, we will consider the role that race and class play in abuse and neglect cases and work to define the appropriate parameters of state intervention into the daily lives of families. Finally, we will examine the unique challenges that face counsel for children and parents.

This seminar will explore legal responses to issues of gender that arise in a variety of different contexts, including civil liberties, the family, employment, education, and athletics. Topics will include, among others, reproductive decisions, sexuality, pregnancy intervention, sexual harassment, discrimination in athletics, gay/lesbian family law, and other timely issues of sex discrimination.