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.