"Children are not parties in divorce proceedings; we are property to be divided. Yet children are people, too. As citizens, we must be afforded our human and legal rights. And when those adults who are supposed to speak for us fail, we need some recourse."

–Alanna Krause, 16, in an editorial about her experience in her parents' custody battle, Los Angeles Daily Journal, July 17, 2000.

Each year, millions of children find themselves thrust into the American legal system as the result of a host of circumstances, from divorcing parents or neglectful or abusive homes, to paternity issues or even criminal charges. Too often, these children lack effective legal representation to ensure that their interests are recognized and protected.

Whittier Law School founded the Center for Children's Rights (CCR) in 1994 to address this pressing need. It is one of the most comprehensive programs of its type among law schools. The Center's mission is, first and most importantly, to train students to represent the rights and interests of children. In addition, the Center seeks to serve as a resource for the community.

The heart of the Center is the Fellowship Program. Each year the Center offers up to twenty students the opportunity to participate in a rich, multi-disciplinary curriculum designed to prepare them for a legal career in representing children's interests. The Fellows are selected based on their record of academic achievement and their passion for and commitment to children's issues.

The Fellowship Program was developed on the theory that advocates for children's rights are best trained in a small program setting that combines academic study, special events focusing on children's law issues, and "hands-on" training. Children's Rights Fellows receive scholarship funds and summer stipends to support their work and are awarded a special certificate of completion upon graduation.

In addition, the Center serves as a resource for the community by sponsoring a variety of programs such as:

• The Children's Rights Clinic which provides legal services in cases involving children's issues.
• Symposia on children's law for the practicing bar, law students, legal scholars and policy-makers.
• The only National Juvenile Law Moot Court Competition in the nation, attended by teams from around the country.

With training, experience and commitment, law students and lawyers can make a positive difference in the lives of children. Whittier Law School's Center for Children's Rights is dedicated to that endeavor.

We welcome your inquiries and applications.

Jacqueline Gentry
Professor of Law
Director, Center for Children's Rights

Once upon a time, in a community just like yours, there was a little boy whose young life was changed dramatically when he was placed in foster care to escape the neglect and abuse in his home. As is typical with many such children, this boy was bounced among foster homes while the legal system sorted out what would ultimately happen to him.

If this were a true story about a real little boy, the statistics would paint a grim picture for his chances to lead a happy and productive life. He might perform poorly in school and miss opportunities to participate in community activities. Ultimately, he might even spend time in a correctional facility, becoming yet another neglected child caught up in the American judicial system.

Our little boy, however, is among the fortunate ones with a happy ending. He had access to legal assistance and supportive social services and was adopted by a loving family, where his chances to lead that happy and productive life will be greatly enhanced. Survey after survey confirms the importance of legal representation in such matters, but rarely are these services available.

American courts have recognized that youth possess a fundamental constitutional right to due process. They are no longer considered their parents' property and their age does not always make them incompetent to express their own thoughts and desires. States have started to recognize that children may need counsel in cases regarding abuse and neglect, paternity decisions, custody disputes, health care, education, and a host of other issues.

But the question remains: who will represent these children?

The Children's Rights program is designed to address this challenge and help children find a happy ending to their tale.

The Facts

For many children, their quality of life provides stark evidence of the need for effective children's advocacy. The Children's Defense Fund reports that:

• As of 1998, nearly 20 percent of American children were living in poverty;
• In 1999, more than 500,000 children were living in foster care;
• In 1998, almost three million children were reported as suspected child abuse or neglect cases, and nearly one million of those were substantiated.

According to U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics reports:

• More than 100,500 persons under age 18 were in custody in juvenile or adult correctional facilities in 1997.
• Between 1985 and 1997, the number of people under age 18 sentenced to adult state prison doubled from 3,400 to 7,400. About 61 percent were incarcerated for a violent offense. Twenty six percent were between 13 and 16 years old.
• In California, there were 76,104 juvenile felony arrests in 1998. Although this is down from a high of 93,665 in 1991, children as young as 14 can now be tried as adults for certain offenses under Proposition 21, which passed in March 2000.

The Bench

"The most common source of representation for children is the private bar...however, these attorneys are usually appointed without any prerequisite education in the special knowledge and skills needed by those who represent children. Most states lack any statewide effort to support or upgrade the competency of court-appointed attorneys
for children."
Judge Leonard P. Edwards, Superior Court of Santa Clara County, Calif

Our Students

"I had the opportunity to attend ‘A New Beginning,' a family and children's welfare conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The conference was an eye-opening experience. I was introduced to areas of children's advocacy that I never knew existed."

James MacKenzie III,
CCR Fellow, Whittier Law School

"I worked at the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach. It was a wonderful opportunity to work with clients and obtain public benefits for them. I also worked in the Long Beach Courthouse in the domestic violence clinic. I would highly recommend working at the Legal Aid Foundation."
Gina Feld, CCR Fellow
Whittier Law School

"The CCR program broadens your horizons to the field of children's advocacy. Through the wide-ranging classes offered and the multitude of externship opportunities, you will graduate from Whittier Law School with a comprehensive look at the field of children's law."
Sujata Shah, CCR Fellow
Whittier Law School

The Center for Children's Rights Program prepares future attorneys who have an interest in helping children either as practitioners in the area, or through pro bono service. Children's rights law covers a broad range of issues, such as abuse and neglect and delinquency, as well as cutting-edge cases involving new fertility technologies which challenge the definition of "parent" under the law.

Fellowships
Students admitted to the CCR Program receive a $4,000 fellowship and are also eligible for additional scholarships up to the cost of tuition. In addition, summer stipends up to $3,800 each are available to those students in good standing who obtain summer positions with government agencies or other approved organizations dealing with children's rights. Fellows who successfully complete their first year and remain in good standing will receive continuing fellowships for their second and third years of legal studies.

Coursework
The CCR curriculum provides Fellows with a well-rounded foundation for becoming children's advocates. The Program includes coursework to introduce the Fellows to all aspects of laws relating to children, special programs to provide a multi-disciplinary perspective on children's issues, and "hands on" experience working on behalf of children.

CCR Fellows take part in the regular academic program at Whittier Law School while they complete a focused core curriculum. Entering Fellows take a specialized legal writing class focusing on drafting skills for child advocacy. Second- and third-year Fellows enroll in courses such as family law, juvenile justice, juvenile law advocacy and advanced legal writing and interviewing, counseling, and negotiation classes focused on children's issues.

Colloquia and Conferences
CCR Fellows expand their knowledge of current issues related to children's law by attending campus colloquia hosted by the Center during the academic year. Past colloquia have included:
• A discussion of custody disputes involving domestic violence focusing on the O. J. Simpson case, presented by attorney Merritt McKeon, and Stephen Doyne, Ph.D.
• Attorneys Judith Williams, a Whittier alumna, and Claudette Kunzman, speaking on grandparent visitation.
• Gang violence and community issues, presented by Father Gregory Boyle, who works with gang members in Los Angeles, accompanied by former gang members.
• Seth Asser, M.D., and Professor William P. Phelps Jr., on religious-based medical neglect.

In addition, Fellows have the opportunity to attend local, regional and national conferences related to children's law.

These programs introduce Fellows to leading lawyers, judges, medical and mental health professionals and their diverse perspectives on the problems faced by children today.

National Juvenile Law Moot Court Competition
Each Spring, the Center sponsors the only National Juvenile Law Moot Court competition in the nation, which attracts teams from law schools around the country who compete for scholarship prizes. In the past, the final round of competition has been held at the California Court of Appeal and judged by California Appellate Justices.

Students write briefs and prepare oral arguments for a given problem. The 2003 competition examines the case of Moore v. State of California, which involves an HIV positive mother convicted of child endangerment because she refused treatment and delivery by cesarean section designed to prevent transmission of the virus to her children and persisted in breast-feeding her children despite the risk of transmission of the virus through her breast milk.

Ninteen law schools participated in the 2002 competition, including Loyola University of Chicago, which took top prize; University of California, Davis; Pepperdine University, and University of Arkansas.

Externships
A solid academic foundation for understanding children's advocacy is only one part of the Program. The often emotional cases involving children are best understood by real-life experience in dealing with them. The Children's Rights Program requires Fellows to complete at least one externship in a legal assistance organization, social services agency, or government office which provides legal assistance to children. Fellows enrolled in an externship discuss legal, social, economic, and psychological insights gleaned from their work in the accompanying Lawyering Skills course.

CCR Fellows can select from a variety of externship opportunities, which have included:
Child abuse and neglect—
• Dependency Court Legal Services in Los Angeles.
• Clerkships for Superior Court Judges in Child Dependency Courts.

Juvenile delinquency—
• District Attorneys' Offices in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, including the Gang Division and the Public Defender's Office.

Family law matters, including domestic violence, custody, child support, adoption, and education law—
• Orange County Department of Education.
• Protection and Advocacy, Inc., a public interest firm representing the disabled.
• Legal Aid Society of Orange County.
• Public Law Center in Orange County.
• Alliance for Children's Rights in Los Angeles.

Summer Stipends
In addition to externships, Fellows wishing to spend their summers working on children's issues both locally and outside of Southern California may apply for a summer stipend.

Previous Fellows have worked for the Public Defender's Office Juvenile Court Division in San Francisco; an agency representing abused and neglected children in Denver, Colorado; the Arizona Department of Corrections Youth Division; and the Family Court in Kentucky. Alternatively, Fellows may use their summer grant money toward coursework related to children's law at approved summer programs at other educational institutions.

Street Law Program
The Street Law Program is a community outreach program through which advanced law students teach various legal subjects to middle and high school students in the Orange and Los Angeles County school districts.  The goal of Street Law is to provide legal information to young adults that will enhance the likelihood that they will appreciate the consequences of breaking the laws that underlie the American legal system through a better understanding of the fundamental principles of authority, fairness, justice and individual responsibilty. Whittier Law School's Street Law Program is modeled after the first Street Law Program which began at Georgetown University Law Center nearly three decades ago. Professor Calvin Peeler serves as the Program Director.

Law students gain proficiency in analyzing and synthesizing legal concepts and facts as well as in communicating the law to lay people. Each semester Whittier students are paired with teachers at local schools where they collaborate to develop lesson plans appropriate for the audience at each school.  The law students often direct a mock trial competition offering the high school's students an opportunity to participate as the litigants and the jury.

Student-Faculty Cooperation In The Fellowship Program
Children's Rights Fellows have a strong voice in the Center's activities. Each Fellow serves on one of five student committees responsible for various aspects of the program: Admissions/Mentoring, Curriculum/Placement, Media/Information, Program, and Public Service. A Children's Rights Fellow also serves on the faculty committee which oversees the Center. Fellows may also participate in monthly brown bag lunches hosted by various faculty members on timely topics related to children and the law.

Symposia
The Center for Children's Rights sponsors symposia open to students, the practicing bar, legal scholars and other interested individuals. In 1998, the Center co-sponsored an International Law Symposium on the Rights of Children with Whittier's International Law Society. In 2007, the Center will host and sponsor the Children's Rights Symposium: Special Education: Full Inclusion.

Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy

Students, in collaboration with CCR, publish one of the few law journals devoted to child and family advocacy. The student-run, scholarly publication has a broad focus, incorporating articles on abuse, neglect, delinquency, education, welfare, child custody and support, and other topics related to children and families.

First Year
Introduction to Legal Skills:
A writing course specifically designed for Children's Fellows 4 units
Civil Procedure 5 units
Contracts 6 units
Criminal Law 3 units
Real Property 6 units
Torts 6 units
(Fellows will also participate in interdisciplinary colloquia and other CCR activities.)

Second Year
Clinical Professional
Responsibility Practicum 2 units
Including Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiation and Advanced Legal Skills specifically designed for Children's Fellows
Constitutional Law 6 units
Juvenile Law 3 units
Family Law** 2 units

Third Year
Juvenile Law Advocacy 3 units
Externship in a legal setting
focusing on children's issues** 2-5 units
Lawyering Skills focusing
on externship experiences** 1 unit
Electives**
**These course can be taken in the second or third year.
(Fellows will continue to participate in the interdisciplinary colloquia and other CCR activities in the second and third year.)

Openings for Center for Children's Rights Fellows are competitive and are filled according to qualifications. Prospective Fellows must complete the application process for admission to the Juris Doctor program, as well as the separate application for the Center for Children's Rights. Only applicants who have completed both applications and supplementary statements will be considered for the CCR Fellows program. Application forms and further information are contained in the Whittier Law School catalog.

To request a catalog call (800) 808-8188 ext 123.

Whittier Law School offers pro bono legal assistance to families and children through its extensive clinical programs. Through the Children’s Advocacy, Special Education, Family Violence, and Health Care Access clinics, Whittier students assist actual clients in administrative and court-based matters. Several clinic staff attorneys, a select number of CCR Fellows, other Whittier students, and volunteer attorneys participate in all aspects of client representation, including interviewing clients, negotiating with interested parties, conducting research and drafting court documents, and appearing on behalf of clients when permitted. These clinics serve children seeking special education services, families facing domestic violence, grandparents seeking guardianship of a minor, and ill children trying to obtain health care services. The clinics have the nation’s largest juvenile population and court system as a live classroom.

All the Center’s clinics are centrally located on the campus and serve the civil legal needs of low-income minor children and their caregivers. Each is also designed to advance the legal skills of participating students while enhancing the availability of pro bono legal assistance in Southern California. The clinics facility includes numerous interview rooms, attorney offices, and student workspaces.

With the assistance of volunteer attorneys from the Los Angeles and Orange County communities and clinical professors, students work on projects designed to meet the special legal needs of children and to increase the number of advocates available to serve this most vulnerable of client groups. Although participation in each of the clinics is open to all students, the majority of slots during the school year are reserved for CCR Fellows.

Jacquelyn Gentry
Director, Center for Children's Rights

B.A. and M.A., Florida State University (honors in English); J.D., Southwestern University School of Law (S.C.A.L.E. Program).  Member, California Bar, also admitted in U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and Southern District of California; Past Chairman, Appellate Law Section, Orange County Bar Association; Appellate Defenders Inc. panel member since 1997, representing minors under appointment by the California Court of Appeal; Presenter, College of Appellate Advocacy; Appellate attorney, 1992-96; Legal Skills Professor, California Western School of Law, 1989-91.  Professor Gentry’s subjects include Legal Writing I and II, Professional Skills I, and Law and Literature. 

Professor Gentry has created and taught special writing problems for Fellows in the Center for Children’s Rights program since 1998.  She was appellate attorney in three published opinions, In re T.R., 132 Cal. App. 4th 1202 (2005), In re Joy M., 99 Cal. App. 4th 11 (2002), and Spann v. Irwin Memorial Blood Centers, 34 Cal. App. 4th 644 (1995), as well as scores of nonpublished opinions in juvenile dependency cases. 

Professor Gentry has published in Orange County Lawyer (“The Dirty Dozen—and How to Defeat Them”;  San Francisco Attorney Magazine (“When at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again,” explaining guidelines to be considered in determining jury misconduct), and Dicta (“The Luck of the Lottery” and “ Lodi v. Lodi and Other Loaded Questions”).

Professor Gentry’s interests include a wide range of legal areas, particularly advocacy for children’s rights, juvenile dependency law, effective legal research and writing, and law and literature.

Warren H. Cohen
Professor of Law

B.A., Yale University; J.D., Harvard University; Harvard Law Review; Assistant Professor and Associate Professor, Arizona State University; Associate Professor, Western New England College of Law; Consultant, National American Indian Court Judges Association; Member, Arizona State Bar. Prof. Cohen teaches Adoption Law, American Constitutional Convention, Contracts, Current Developments in California Law, Legal Process, Legislation, and Native Americans and the Law. He has been a Professor of Law at Whittier since 1977.

Prof. Cohen and his wife adopted two multi-racial children. He is active in organizations involved in adoptions and with the multi-racial community such as Multi-Racial Americans of Southern California and Stars of David.

Judith F. Daar
Professor of Law

B.A., University of Michigan, with high honors, Phi Beta Kappa; J.D., Georgetown University, cum laude; litigator, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Lecturer-in-Law, UCLA School of Law; Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Loyola Law School; Chair, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Committee on Bioethics; Member, Community Advisory Board, Legal Aid Society of Orange County, Health Care Ombuds Program; California State Bar member since 1984. Her subjects include Bioethics, Health Law, Legal Process, Real Property, and Wills and Trusts. She joined the Whittier faculty in 1990.

Professor Daar's Bioethics class discusses issues such as surrogate parenting arrangements, assisted reproductive technologies and children's rights, consent for children's health care, maternal-fetus conflicts that endanger pre-borns such as prenatal drug abuse, and refusal to consent to a caesarean section. Children and AIDS (including exclusion from school) has also been discussed.

Her publications include "Selective Reduction of Multiple Pregnancy: Lifeboat Ethics in the Womb," 25 UC Davis L. Rev. 773 (1992); "Direct Democracy and Bioethical Choices," 28 Mich. J. L. Ref. 799 (1995); "Regulating Human Reproductive Technologies: Panacea or Paper Tiger?" 34 Hous. L. Rev. 609 (1997); "The Future of Human Cloning: Prescient Lessons From Medical Ethics Past," 8 So. Cal. Interdisciplinary Law Journal, 167 (1998); and "Resolving Disputes Over Frozen Embryos," 8 Tex. J. of Women and the Law 285 (1999).

Professor Daar has also lectured at conferences and symposia on the following subjects: Regulation of Assisted Reproductive Technologies, Sale of Human Eggs, Sperm, and Embryos; Human Cloning, Selective Reduction of Multiple Pregnancies, and Legislative and Judicial Response to Surrogate Mother Contracts. She has also participated in numerous national conferences, speaking on a variety of bioethical topics.

She has been a member of the American Bar Association Coordinating Group on Bioethics and the Law (1991-1994), Faculty Advisor of the Whittier Annual Health Law Symposium (1991-1999), and Chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Bioethics Committee, Subcommittee on Reproductive Issues (1986-present). She serves as a volunteer attorney for the HIV and AIDS Legal Services Alliance (HALSA), drafting wills and powers of attorney for individuals suffering from HIV and AIDS.

Deborah L. Forman
Professor of Law

A.B., Brown University, magna cum laude, honors history, Phi Beta Kappa; J.D., Stanford Law School, Associate Editor, Stanford Law Review; Clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit; Litigator, Kinsella, Boesch, Fujikawa & Towle, 1988-90.

Prof. Forman teaches Torts, Family Law, Current Developments in California Law, Juvenile and Family Legislation and a Constitutional Law Seminar on the right of privacy, which covers constitutional issues involving children's and parents' rights in a variety of contexts. She joined the Whittier faculty in 1990.

Prof. Forman's research interests include gender issues in the law, new reproductive technologies, alternative families and fatherhood.

Her publications include Every Parent's Guide to the Law (Harcourt Brace, 1998); "Unwed Fathers and Adoption: A Theoretical Analysis in Context," 72 Texas L. Rev. 967 (1994); "Unwed Fathers and Adoption," the Los Angeles Daily Journal, October 1993; and "Privacy and Confidentiality," in the Encyclopedia of Marriage and the Family (MacMillan & Co. 1995).

Prof. Forman has appeared on television and radio across the nation and has been interviewed by various newspapers and magazines on legal issues involving parents and children. She was a presenter at the International Society of Family Laws, North American Regional Conference, and lectured at the UCSD Institute of Continued Learning and the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Prof. Forman served as a member of the Barrister's Children's Rights Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association in 1988-89 and as a member of the Los Angeles Bioethics Committee from 1991-1996. She is currently a member of the Southern California Domestic Violence Committee of the State Bar.

While in private practice she represented children on a pro bono basis.

William Wesley Patton
Professor of Law

B.A., California State University, Long Beach, summa cum laude; M.A., UCLA; J.D., UCLA; Deputy State Public Defender; Lecturer, UCLA School of Law; Assistant and Associate Dean, Whittier Law School; California State Bar and United States District Court, Central District. Prof. Patton's subjects include Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiation; Juvenile Justice, Lawyering Skills, Legal Clinic, Torts, and Trial Advocacy.

As a Deputy State Public Defender, Prof. Patton specialized in defending juveniles in the California Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court. For four years, as a professor at UCLA School of Law, Prof. Patton supervised students who represented parties in child abuse litigation in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Child Dependency Division.

Prof. Patton frequently discusses child abuse and neglect issues at ABA and AALS conferences. He is a member of ABA and Los Angeles County Bar Association committees regarding juvenile delinquency and dependency, and is active as amicus counsel in appellate cases involving children's issues.

He has written numerous articles regarding child abuse and neglect, including "Forever Torn Asunder: Charting Evidentiary Parameters, The Right to Competent Counsel and The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in California Child Dependency and Parental Severance Cases," 27 Santa Clara L. Rev. 299 (1987); "The World Where Parallel Lines Converge: The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination in Concurrent Civil and Criminal Child Abuse Proceedings," 24 Georgia L. Rev. 473 (1990); "It Matters Not What Is Right But What Might Have Been: The Standard of Appellate Review for Denial of Counsel in Child Dependency and Parental Severance Trials," 12 Whittier L. Rev. 537 (1991); "Evolution In Child Abuse Litigation: The Theoretical Void Where Evidentiary and Procedural Worlds Collide," 25 Loyola of Los Angeles L. Rev. 1009 (1992); "Child Abuse: The Irreconcilable Difference Between Criminal Prosecution and Informal Dependency Court Mediation," 31 Univ. of Louisville J. Of Family Law 37 (1992-93); "Severing Hansel From Gretel: An Analysis of Siblings' Association Rights," 49 Univ. of Miami L. Rev. No. 2, Spring 1995; "Law Schools' Duty to Train Children's Advocates: A Blueprint for an Inexpensive Experientially-Based Juvenile Justice Course," 46 Juvenile and Family Court Journal No. 1, Spring 1995; "An Opening Gambit In Teaching Juvenile Law," 20 Univ. of Alabama Law & Psychology Review 1 (1996); "Standards Of Appellate Review For Denial Of Counsel And Ineffective Assistance Of Counsel in Child Protection and Parental Severance Cases," 27 Loyola Univ. Chicago L. J. 195 (1996); "Children Are Invisible, Children Are Real," 18 Whittier L. Rev. 759 (1997); "S.B. California's New Hybrid: Children's Counsel As Advocates And Guardians Ad Litem," 2 U.C. Davis J. Of Juv. L. & Policy 16 (1997); "Legislative Regulation of Dependency Court Attorneys: Public Relations and Separation of Powers," 24 Notre Dame J. Of Legislation 1 (1998); "In re Car," Negotiation Simulation Exercises (Center for Dispute Resolution, 1999); "Searching for the Proper Role of Children's Counsel in California Dependency Cases: The Answer of the Dependency Sphinx," 1 J. of the Center for Children and the Courts 21 (1999); "Mommy's Gone, Daddy's In Prison, Now What About Me? Family Reunification For Children Of Single Custodial Fathers In Prison Will The Sins Of Incarcerated Fathers Be Inherited By Their Children?" 75 North Dakota L. Rev. 179 (1999).

Calvin D. Peeler
Associate Professor of Law

A.B., UC Berkeley, magna cum laude, honors linguistics, Phi Beta Kappa; J.D., Boalt Hall of UC Berkeley, Associate Editor, Ecology Law Quarterly; M.A., French Literature, Stanford University; J.S.M., Law, Stanford Law School.

Professor Peeler teaches Contracts, Torts, Criminal Law, Street Law and a seminar on Comparative Legal Systems. He is the director of Whittier Law School's exchange program with the University of Paris X in Nanterre, France. Prior to coming to Whittier Law School, Prof. Peeler taught at San Jose State University.

Professor Peeler's research interests include comparative law, law and literature, and contracts. His publications include "Always a Victim and Never a Criminal: Juvenile Delinquency in France," 22 NC Jrl. of Intl. Law & Com. Reg 875 (1997); "The Politics of Memory: Reconstructing Vichy and the Past the French Chose to Forget," 19 Whittier L. Rev. 353 (1997); and "From the Providence of Kings to Copyrighted Things (and French Moral Rights)," 9 Indiana Int. & Comp. Law Review 423 (1999).

Brenda L. Agren has been an active member of the Orange County Bar Association Family Law Section for twenty-one years. She has served on the Family Law Executive Committee as an officer in various capacities since the early 1980s. She was President in 1995 of the Family Law Section. She has been a lecturer on family law topics for Continuing Education of the Bar and the Rutter Group as well as serving on other panels. She is on the Amicus Board of the Public Law Center in Orange County, and maintains a private practice in Irvine, California, focusing exclusively on family law.

Dr. Carol Diane Berkowitz is Associate Chair at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California. She also serves as Director, Pediatric Residency Training Program; Director, Pediatric Clinic and Group Practice; Director and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine. Among her medical society memberships include the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology; California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children; American Pediatric Society; Association of Professionals for Sexually Abused Children; American Association of Protecting Children; member of the Board, American Board of Pediatrics; and President, Association of Pediatric Program Directors. Publications include International Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect; Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics; Pediatrics; ALDC; Adolescent and Pediatric Gynecology; Associate Editor, Journal of Child Sexual Abuse; Advisory Board Member, Tomorrow's Morning: Newspaper for Kids.

Dr. Lorinda Camparo is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Whittier College. Her research has focused on different methods of interviewing children in forensic settings to elicit more complete and accurate testimony. She has also examined parent-child relationships and friendships during childhood and adolescence, how those relationships change, and how they affect children's and adolescents' sense of self, as well as the development of racial stereotypes and prejudice in young children and their impact on children's and adults' self-descriptions.

Grace Emery, a Past President of California Women Lawyers and of Orange County Women Lawyers, has recently been appointed to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation of the State Bar of California. She is a director of the Orange County Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association of Orange County, and the Public Law Center in Orange County. For more than ten years she has chaired the labor law study group of the Orange County delegation to the State Bar convention and is a member of the State Bar Resolutions Committee. She is also a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. She is in solo practice in Santa Ana, California, concentrating on employment discrimination at both trial and appellate court levels.

Kathleen M. Loyer is a solo practitioner focusing on advocating on behalf of children in the arena of public education, including special education, general education, civil rights, and disability law, as well as Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act cases for children and adults. She is a parent representative to the California Association of Private Special Education and Services board and is member to the California Department of Education's Advisory Board on Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children. She founded Partners in Education, an education collaborative that focused on children with special needs.

Dr. Jill Waterman is Adjunct Professor of Psychology at UCLA and Assistant Coordinator of the UCLA Psychology Clinic. She is an expert on sexual abuse of children, and has co-authored two books on the subject: Sexual Abuse of Young Children: Evaluation and Treatment, and Behind the Playground Walls: Sexual Abuse in Preschools. Dr. Waterman teaches in the Clinical Psychology program at UCLA in the areas of child assessment, child psychotherapy, and child abuse. She has a small private practice

Ted R. Youmans is a name partner at Van Deusen, Youmans & Walmsley and a 1986 Whittier Law School graduate. The Orange County-based firm is nationally recognized for its representation of children, adoptive parents, guardians, foster parents and parties in surrogacy cases. The firm has drafted the syllabus on adoption and termination of parental rights for the California Judge's College. Mr. Youmans balances his time between his family, a busy practice, and volunteering in the schools. He is a board member of the Orange County Youth Commission; a board member of and singer in his church, and is developing a national outreach program for women involved in unplanned or crisis pregnancies.

Van Deusen, Youmans & Walmsley embodies the spirit of the Whittier Law School Center for Children's Rights. The firm, featuring Whittier alumni and name partners Ted R. Youmans and Robert R. Walmsley, specializes in children's rights issues. "In the past this firm has witnessed the somewhat passive role taken by advocates appointed on behalf of minors," says Ted Youmans from his office in Orange County. "We strongly believe the minors' advocate must take a more active role as the child's representative."

The practice consists of four attorneys focusing exclusively on adoptions; foster parent rights; all aspects of dependency litigation; contested adoptions; grandparent and non-relative guardianships; termination of parental rights; children's rights cases; associated litigation; writs and appeals; international adoptions; Indian Child Welfare Act, Interstate Compact on Placement of Children, and Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act cases; surrogacy cases, and appellate and Superior Court appointments for representation of children.

The attorneys have testified before Senate and Assembly Committees regarding adoption, visitation and surrogacy issues and have also drafted significant amendments and proposed legislation over the last twelve years. The office is honored to have been involved in over 25 published opinions which have significantly shaped these areas of law. Adoption of Kelsey S. is the leading California Supreme Court case which decided the extent of interest the birth father has if he disagrees with the birth mother's choice of private adoption. Johnson v. Calvert was the first surrogacy case in the California Supreme Court and held the surrogacy contract valid, while determining the rights of the birth mother and the rights of the intended parents of the child.

Looking to the future, the firm is actively participating in the development of new adoption laws, advocacy for children and promoting adoption as a positive, fulfilling and accessible option for unplanned pregnancies and those who cannot have children.