Most of us didn’t know that Child Welfare was an area of law when we attended school. It might have been covered in one session during Family Law, but that’s it. Our state is in dire need of more parent attorneys.
UNC-CH’s School of Law started a parent representation clinic to raise awareness about this area of law and to give rising attorneys an opportunity to help the community. Ably led by Professor Beth Posner, with training provided by Sara DePasquale and Timothy Heinle at the School of Government and Annick Lenoir-Peek, the Parent Defender, these eight law students are experiencing a unique opportunity!
The students are representing parents in child welfare proceedings in Orange and Chatham Counties. They will be handling cases from the initiation of the court proceedings and ongoing. Students will have opportunities to render both in and out of court advocacy on behalf of their clients while under the supervision of Professor Posner.
We hope this inspires more law schools to follow UNC-CH’s lead and address the vast need for parent attorneys throughout our state.
