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Barton Child Law and Policy Center Newsletter |
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Celebrate Foster Children's Educational Success this Wednesday
The 19th Annual Celebration of Excellence, which honors the educational achivements of Georgia youth in foster care graduating from high school and college, will take place this Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 6pm at the Rialto Center for the Arts. This inspiring event is co-hosted by the Young Lawyers Division of the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Human Services, the Georgia Indpendent Living Program, Gift for a Child Inc., Nsoro Foundation, and the Interfaith Children's Movement.
The Rialto Center is located at 80 Forsyth Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30303. The event is free to attend, but RSVPs are requested. For more information, please visit www.celebrationofexcellence.org.
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Next Georgia Child Welfare Legal Academy June 16, 2011
Georgia Special Education Law and Kids in Care: An Overview
Registration is now open for the next session of the GA Child Welfare Legal Academy on Thursday, June 16, 2011, from 1:30 until 3:45 p.m. Visiting Scholar in Practice, Craig Goodmark, Director of the TeamChild Atlanta Project at Atlanta Legal Aid Society, will present an overview of Georgia's Special Education Laws focusing particularly on how those laws apply to and affect children in care.
Click here to register or for more details
Seating is limited: Online registration is strongly encouraged. The registration fee for all participants is $10.
Parking:Your parking will be validated for 3 hours. Parking is limited to the Hospital Visitor deck, Lowergate (not Lowergate South). Please reference http://www.law.emory.edu/about-emory-law/maps-directions.html for parking information and driving directions.
CLE credit: 2.0 regular CLE credits will be offered for this program for an additional fee of $10.00 payable by cash or check on-site.
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Registration is Now Open for Child Welfare Attorney Trial Skills Training
The Second Annual Child Welfare Trial Skills Training, a Georgia specific, "learning-by-doing" trial techniques training, will be held July 8-9, 2011, at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School. The training focuses specifically on trial skills and is not a substantive law seminar. This year's training will concentrate on direct and cross examination, including such related issues as the introduction of evidence, tendering experts, making objections, and more. Enrollment is limited to 50 attorneys. A waitlist will be employed to ensure an optimal faculty-student ratio.
The training offers a full year's MCLE credit (12 MCLE hours, including 1 ethics hour, 6 trial practice hours and 1 professionalism hour). To receive CLE credit, participants will be required to pay the Bar $5 per hour claimed ($15 per hour for Professionalism). The training will be based on a deprivation case scenario and Georgia law. Portions of the training take place in a simulated courtroom setting and students will receive faculty critique and video review. While the training will employ the NITA method of operation for teaching the students, the training is not a NITA-sponsored training.
All participants must commit to attend the entire training. Program materials will be provided to all participants in advance of the training. All participants must read the program materials before the training. If you are uncertain about your availability or ability to prepare, please do not apply to attend.
The training is sponsored by the Supreme Court of Georgia Committee on Justice for Children, the Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts, the Georgia Association of Counsel for Children, the Georgia Public Defenders Standards Council and the Parent Attorney Advocacy Committee.
Registration Fee: $100 per person for groups of 5 or more, $150 individual registration. No payment is due with your application form. Registration forms and further instructions will be emailed to the first 50 accepted applicants and a waitlist will be maintained. Scholarships are available for a limited number of attorneys meeting certain criteria. Contact cwtrialtechniques@gmail.com for application and scholarship information. The application and scholarship deadline is June 13.
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Student Reflection: Appeal for Youth
by Molly Parmer, Emory Law Class of 2012
Participating in the Appeal for Youth program (AFY) was the highlight of my spring semester. Through AFY, an Equal Justice Works project housed at the Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic, I worked under the direction of Steve Reba on a variety of projects. I developed practical appellate advocacy skills and had the opportunity to engage with juvenile clients and their families. I worked on direct appeals from juvenile delinquency hearings and learned how to effectively write an appellate brief in the state of Georgia. I had a part in writing two briefs that the Barton Clinic submitted to the Georgia Court of Appeals this past spring.
Additionally, I worked on SB 440 cases-- cases that involved juvenile defendants facing adult sentences for their crimes. For these cases, I interviewed the defendants and their families. I learned more about the nature of the attorney-client relationship through this clinic experience than I ever could have in the classroom. I engaged with my clients in youth detention facilities, visited their neighborhoods, and connected with their families. I interacted with both prosecutors and defense attorneys in the juvenile system. I learned extensively about the Georgia juvenile code and how the law treats youthful offenders.
AFY allowed me to work in a variety of styles, both independently and with a partner. Additionally, I met weekly with other Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic students and faculty to hear about their progress on their cases. These weekly team meetings exposed me to the rigors of direct representation and trial advocacy, and I learned strategies from students as they discussed their experiences. My participation in AFY at the Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic was worth much more than the school credits it earned me: it allowed me to actively participate in the juvenile justice system, and to apply what I have been learning in school to actual clients in actual cases. For these reasons, AFY was not only one of the most practical experiences I have had in law school, it was also one of the most inspiring.
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Follow us on Twitter
The Barton Center is twittering information relevant to child advocacy at the Capitol. Follow us at @bartoncenter at twitter.com to get up-to-the-minute information on topics such as:
- Times, dates, and locations of advocacy meetings and legislative hearings;
- Status of juvenile court-related legislation;
- Action alerts for important pro-child initiatives; and
- News and research on best practices for children's law.
Begin following us by clicking on the Twitter icon to the right! 
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Quick Links...
Donate. Your contribution directly supports the work of the Barton Child Law and Policy Center to improve the lives of abused, neglected and court-involved children. In the "select fund" drop down box, please choose "Robin Nash Fellowship" to help us launch the careers of talented new child advocates or choose "other" and write "Barton Center operations" to support all other aspects of our work. Thank you for your generous support; our work would not be possible without community contributions. Join the Barton Center email list. The Barton Child Law and Policy Center sends weekly legislative updates when the Georgia General Assembly is in session. During the rest of the year we send periodic emails with information on upcoming educational opportunities, legislative and policy developments, research findings, and changes to law, policy and practice. Sign up here to receive important updates on children's law in Georgia.
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