Children & Youth Law

PENN LAW FACULTY

Penn Law Adjuncts & Lecturers

TOLL PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER PARTNERS AT PENN

PUBLIC SERVICE PLACEMENTS

Adoption Resource Center
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey
Berner & Klaw
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Blank Rome LLP
CASA of Allegheny County
City of Philadelphia Law Department
Community Legal Services, Inc. - Public Benefits
Custody and Support Assistance Clinic (CASAC)
Dechert LLP
Defender Association of Philadelphia - Child Advocacy
Education Law Center - PA
International Labor Rights Fund
Juvenile Law Center
National Center for Environmental Health Strategies
New Jersey Office of the Public Defender
New York Legal Assistance Group
Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth
Public Counsel Law Center
Public Defender's Office - Montgomery County, PA
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP)
Saul Ewing LLP
Southern Poverty Law Center
Support Center for Child Advocates
The Community Friends for Human Services, Inc.
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 will examine federal and state cases, statutes, regulations, and policies that affect students, teachers, and school administrators. The topics that will be covered include religion in the schools, special education and disability issues, student and teacher speech, bilingual education, and discrimination based on gender and race. There will be a special emphasis on students’ rights and on administrative practice in education, as well as the use of alternatives to litigation, including negotiation and mediation, to resolve the emotionally and financially costly disputes that arise in this practice area.

This survey course will provide an introduction to the field of family law. It will examine the importance of “family” and “marriage” as categories of legal regulation. The course will cover the legal requirements for entering into marriage, the legal consequences of marital status, common law incidents of marriage and reforms of the common law, legal responses to domestic violence, and alternatives to marriage. It will explore changing and contested definitions of marriage and family, including the ongoing political and legal debates over same-sex marriage and over the recognition of alternatives to marriage, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships. Family contracts, such as premarital agreements and separation agreements, will be a topic of study. The course will examine rules concerning family dissolution, including traditional and “no-fault” divorce, property division, spousal support, child support, and custody. It will also consider how family law determines legal parenthood and regulates adoption and alternative reproductive technologies. The course is intended to introduce students to family law as a dynamic field of law, one in which, in recent decades, there has been significant modification in doctrine. Another aim is to expose students to how family law intersects with the social sciences and with many other fields of law, including property, contracts, constitutional law, conflict of laws, and torts.

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.

This interdisciplinary course brings together topics in employment law, labor economics, domestic relations, tax law, employment discrimination, industrial organization, and feminist jurisprudence. The course will focus on an issue of increasing social importance: the need for fair, efficient, and flexible structures to help individuals reconcile the demands of family and work. The course will examine how family dynamics and labor markets affect the choices and the well-being of men, women, and children, and will investigate the effects of various legal interventions and private and public policies on those choices and on individual and social welfare. The class will have an analytical and empirical focus and will make use of materials in sociology, economics, and psychology.   

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.