In an area of the law in which attorneys carry large caseloads and may be limited in their ability to delve deeply into complicated family situations, students in the Child Advocacy Clinic can make a critical difference. Students work collaboratively with lawyers representing children at the Juvenile Rights Division of The Legal Aid Society of New York City, the oldest and largest law office dedicated to child advocacy in the country. The clinic combines an intensive simulation course with casework in which students, under close supervision, represent children living in foster care, and advocate on behalf of their needs and wishes within a large, urban social-welfare system.
The clinic offers students several interrelated opportunities to learn to lawyer. First, students are introduced to litigation-practice skills: interviewing, counseling, fact-gathering, case development and strategy, as well as preparation for negotiated and litigated proceedings. While they focus intently on learning to represent children, they also learn skills that are necessary in many areas of practice. In addition, because of the unique characteristics of child-welfare proceedings, students also engage in significant interdisciplinary learning involving facets of social work, child development, psychiatry, educational policies and practices, substance abuse and treatment, and family-court policies and practices. Forensic psychiatry fellows from Columbia University's medical system participate in clinic classes and casework as part of their fellowships, enhancing their own and the law students' understanding of the complex social problems that affect children the clinic represents.
Advocacy in recent years by clinic students has resulted in a number of positive outcomes, including children being returned to their families from foster care; being adopted by relatives or foster parents; securing appropriate school placements; having their immigration status legalized; attaining benefits for college and vocational training; and receiving special grants for art, music, and sports activities. Students have researched and written policy papers on new forms of subsidized guardianship for relatives, for which they have also lobbied in the state capital. In addition, students have participated in impact litigation challenging inappropriate removals of children from long-term foster families; helped create a video to introduce children to family court; and worked on a wide range of projects designed to provide judges, legislators, and city officials with information to improve the policies and practices of the child-welfare system and family court.
Current projects of the Child Advocacy Clinic include an immigrant children's representation project in which clinic students represent youth seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, an immigrant visa available to children who are abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents. These cases are supervised by the clinic's Clinical Staff Attorney, Ragini Shah, who joined the clinic in Fall 2004. These immigration cases allow students to work in the child welfare and immigration law fields simultaneously, giving students in-depth experience with both systems. Representation by the students and Ms. Shah has resulted in a dozen young people obtaining lawful permanent residence in the United States allowing them to remain in the U.S., to work legally and to access financial aid for college.
In addition to direct representation, students in the clinic have worked on a number of large-scale advocacy projects for immigrant children. One of the most tangible results of these projects was the launch of a website which serves as a guide for advocates, caseworkers and potential clients. The website, called the "New York Online SIJS Guide," was designed, under Ms. Shah's supervision by Mei Lai and Maria Luina, students in the clinic from Fall 2005 to Spring 2006, with contributions from DeAvery Irons and Kemi Laniya, students in the clinic from Fall 2004 to Spring 2005. In addition to model forms, motions, orders and other documents, the website contains an original film on seeking SIJS in New York by Lauren Monosoff and Naomi Goodman. The website can be accessed at http://quickplace.law.columbia.edu/childimmigrant.
Jennifer Pringle '00 "The Child Advocacy Clinic was a fabulous experience. We not only learned how to interview a client and how to develop a theory of a case but also got to interact with clients and argued motions in court. What was so empowering about the clinic was that, because we didn't have large caseloads, we could put time and effort into cases and see the results. Although not all the stories had happy endings, in some cases in which I had argued for children to be returned to their homes, I was able to see how well they were doing later on."
Jennifer Pringle '00 The Partnership for the Homeless
Professor Jane M. Spinak Professor Jane M. Spinak is the Edward Ross Aranow Clinical Professor of Law. A member of the Columbia faculty since 1982, she co-founded the Child Advocacy Clinic, which represents children living in foster care in family-court proceedings. During the mid-1990s, Professor Spinak served as attorney-in-charge of the Juvenile Rights Division of The Legal Aid Society of New York City. From 2001 to 2006, she was the director of clinical education at the law school. In 2002, she became the founding chair of the board of the Center for Family Representation, an advocacy and policy organization dedicated to ensuring the procedural and substantive rights of parents in child-welfare proceedings. Professor Spinak is a member of the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children. She has served on numerous tasks forces and committees addressing the needs and rights of children and families and has trained and lectured widely on those issues to lawyers, social workers and other mental health professionals. She has authored books and articles for child advocates and judges on child welfare and Family Court matters including a Permanency Planning Judicial Benchbook. Her current research focuses on Family Court reform as discussed in Adding Value to Families: The Potential of Model Family Courts (2002 Wisconsin Law Review 332). On her return from sabbatical, Professor Spinak will direct the newly created Multi-Disciplinary Center of Excellence in Child Advocacy at the law school in collaboration with the national child advocacy organization, First Star.
The Child Advocacy Clinic will launch a new project to represent adolescents in collateral issues relating to their aging out of foster care or other institutional settings. Most of these clients range in age from 16 to 21. The issues will extend across a broad spectrum of need including: housing and homelessness prevention, teen parenting, health and health benefits, income and support benefits, education, tuition and financial aid benefits, financial planning, civil rights including LGBT issues, job training and career planning, and domestic violence. Students paired in teams will represent clients referred from the Adolescent Project of the Juvenile Rights Division (JRD) of the Legal Aid Society.
The project will have four components:
Seminar in Representing Adolescents: a weekly seminar will focus on the unique attributes of adolescents as viewed from multiple disciplines including medicine, law, sociology, and psychology. In addition to law students enrolled in the clinic, graduate students from other disciplines will enroll in the seminar portion of the clinic in order to explore adolescence from multiple perspectives.
Research and Development of Adolescent Representation: every student enrolled in the clinic and the seminar will participate in a research and policy investigation into current models of representing adolescents. This exploration will include interviewing child advocates in multiple fields and youth in various contexts to determine current policies and practices and to recommend improvements. Students enrolled only in the seminar will be able to continue this work into the second semester for additional credits. Law students enrolled in the clinic will continue this work as part of their overall responsibilities in the clinic.
Class and Simulation Exercises to prepare for casework: students will participate in intensive simulation practice, being introduced to basic lawyering skills including interviewing and counseling, case development and strategy, and preparation for negotiation or litigation. Because of the unique requirements of representing youth, students engage in additional interdisciplinary learning beyond the seminar component, using the approaches and knowledge of many disciplines to represent the client effectively. During September, there may be two additional classes to jump start students’ abilities to begin representing clients.
Client Representation: students will begin to represent clients in mid-October following the intensive introduction to representation. Students will be teamed in pairs for casework. Each team will meet weekly with Professor Spinak for case supervision. Once case representation begins, some portion of the classes devoted to case preparation will be structured for case rounds so that students will be aware of and learn from their colleagues’ cases. Once casework has begun, students should expect to devote at least 20 hours per week to clinic-related activities.
Students with a wide range of backgrounds and/or ultimate career interests are encouraged to apply. Graduates of the clinic enter public service and private practice careers, frequently using their clinic experience to develop pro bono opportunities in the private sector. Students will focus on their own professional goals for the year, identifying specific skills or professional attributes they would like to develop or enhance in preparation for making the transition into the legal profession. The clinic will encompass professional responsibility and ethical practice issues as well as explorations into the role of law and legal practice in a just society.
