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Families and the Law Clinic

Supervising attorneys:

Left: Professor Catherine Klein, Director, Columbus Community Legal Services Klein@law.edu 
Center: Professor Margaret Barry Barry@law.edu
Right: Professor Lisa Martin Martinl@law.edu

The Families and the Law Clinic is designed to help students develop lawyering skills while focusing on cases involving domestic violence and family law issues. Law students enrolled in Families and the Law Clinic assist victims of domestic violence in obtaining temporary and permanent restraining orders, as well as representing domestic violence clients in general domestic relations litigation. Clinic cases include issues such as divorce, custody, visitation, property distribution, and child support.

A weekly, three-hour seminar covers a variety of family law, poverty law, professional responsibility, and advocacy technique topics.

In addition to their litigation caseload, students participate in a community education project, for example, teen domestic violence workshops in local high schools. In recent semesters, this project has involved collaborative efforts among the Families and the Law Clinic faculty and students, District of Columbia court personnel, and members of Georgetown University Law Center's Street Law Clinic. The project's goals are to make high school students aware of the dynamic in violent relationships, to help them recognize the cyclical nature of the violence, to teach them what positive relationships are like, and to apprise them of available community resources in the event they are needed.

Professors Catherine Klein, Margaret Martin Barry, and Lisa Martin supervise students enrolled in the Families and the Law Clinic. Both Professors Klein and Barry have been active in court reform, legislative advocacy, and community education projects related to domestic violence. Both are recipients of public service awards for outstanding service in representing victims of domestic violence.