The Family Defense Clinic advocates for individuals and communities in one of the most important civil rights issues of our time: the government policing of family life and state intervention into the lives of families of color and of low-income.

The Family Defense Clinic (FDC) is an in-house clinic where students work closely with families impacted by the family policing – or child welfare – system.  It challenges the systemic racism and classism driving state intervention into the private lives of families and communities of color and lower socioeconomic status. Through our Early Defense project, FDC students are at the forefront of innovative law practice representing parents in family policing investigations; students also represent parents in court proceedings involving abuse or neglect charges, in administrative proceedings challenging parents’ inclusion on a statewide register, and in appellate and federal civil rights litigation. FDC students also collaborate with community and movement organizations to build and support rights awareness campaigns, legislative action, and broader accountability.

Our faculty and students examine the doctrine, policy, and practice of family law, especially as it applies to low-income families living at the nexus of state intervention around youth justice, child welfare services, threats to parental rights due to institutionalized and discriminatory definitions of care, and the consequences mass incarceration creates for families of color.

In the classroom, students will become familiar with general family law doctrines such as divorce, custody and visitation, child dependency and protection, parental defense in abuse and neglect proceedings, paternity and child support, as well as law-related to juvenile justice and intimate partner violence.

Faculty

  • Tarek Z. Ismail
    Co-Director, Family Law Practice Clinic, Counsel to CLEAR, and Associate Professor of Law
    Tarek Ismail co-directs the Family Law Practice Clinic and is of counsel to CUNY Law's Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project. He began his work with CLEAR in 2016 as a Staff Attorney and then Senior Staff Attorney, where he worked with individuals approached for questioning by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, experienced difficulties traveling, were placed on federal watchlists, experienced severe immigration delays on grounds of national security, and otherwise faced discriminatory scrutiny by law enforcement. Read Tarek Ismail's full bio.  
  • Julia Hernandez
    Associate Professor of Law
    Julia Hernandez ’12 is an Associate Professor of Law at the CUNY School of Law. Julia's practice has focused on representing parents, children, and families in child welfare and immigration proceedings. She also researches and writes about pedagogy and political lawyering. Prior to joining CUNY's faculty, Julia was an attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services' Family Defense Practice where she represented parents in child neglect and abuse proceedings. Julia also worked with non-citizens fighting deportation with Catholic Migration Services where she focused on representing youth. Julia also participates in the Community Legal Resource Network where she has collaborated with community-based organizations to provide legal workshops in the areas of Family and Immigration law. View Julia Hernandez's full bio.
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