Registration Guide 2024-2025

AREAS OF FOCUS

Juvenile and Family Law Attorneys who practice in the area of family and juvenile law frequently see their clients at their most distressed: they represent parents who have lost custody of their children (to the state or to the other parent), children who have been arrested and are being prosecuted as delinquents, or families who are worried about an elderly relative's ability to continue caring for herself -- to name just a few common issues. But these lawyers also help clients achieve great joy, when handling an adoption, or helping a same-sex (or infertile) couple make legal arrangements for artificial reproduction, or upon resolving one of the aforementioned distress-provoking matters. Family and juvenile lawyers must be fluent in substantive law and the procedural rules of many different courts; adept at counseling clients who can be justifiably quite emotional; skilled at negotiating favorable resolutions in extraordinarily high-stakes matters; and comfortable with trial lawyering, often in a context of great uncertainty.

Recommended Courses

Children and Disability Law

Family Law

Children and the Law

Trial Advocacy

Other Relevant Courses

Administrative Law

Mediation

Criminal Procedure

Mental Health Law

Education, Equality and the Law

Negotiation

Evidence

Pre-Trial Civil Litigation

Interviewing and Counseling

State Criminal Practice

Law Practice Planning

Trial Advocacy

Massachusetts Practice

Trial Advocacy: Intensive

Clinics and Externships:

Family Advocacy Clinic

Externships (placements are available in a variety of relevant organizations)

Juvenile Defenders Clinic

The Career Services pro bono program has many opportunities available for students to explore family and juvenile law. In addition to matching students with faculty to assist them on pro bono projects, the Career Services Office has placed students in a variety of organizations for non-credit, volunteer work. Additionally, the Office of Professional and Career Development, in conjunction with the Faculty Clerkship Committee, runs a summer clerkship program in which students completing their first year are matched with judges for an unpaid, non-credit experience.

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