Representing Children in Families

During the nearly half century that legal norms have mandated appointment of counsel or other representation for children in legal proceedings, the children’s attorneys’ community has come to the conclusion that ethical legal representation of children is synonymous with allowing the child to direct representation. In the meantime, global norms have also recognized that children should participate and have a voice in legal proceedings that affect their legal interests. As children have come to the fore in this way, their attorneys have begun to view them as individuals who have much to say and whose wishes and needs are deeply connected to their families, communities and the social and material conditions that affect them all.

Embracing these norms and insights, children’s attorneys have become more mindful of the importance of discerning and presenting children’s voice and the limitations of viewing children in single dimensions. It is not surprising then that children’s attorneys have increasingly come to include professionals from other disciplines to assist in identifying and achieving justice for children. Children’s attorneys also recognize that children’s voice and the solution to many of their legal problems are grounded in family and community. But these attorneys struggle with whether and how to relate to families in light of legal barriers between children and parents involved in court proceedings and related ethical barriers between attorneys and non-clients. Attorneys further strive to bridge the gaps in basic racial, cultural and social cornerstones between them and their clients.

Moreover, children’s attorneys can find themselves, and the legal and related social systems that serve or govern children, inattentive to the complexity and individuality of the children and families that come before them. The result is that these often well-meaning professionals and systems sometimes sub stitute their own interests or ideas about what children need for the wisdom of the children and their families, and provide solutions that are neither welcome nor responsive to the need. In these instances, professionals and systems fail to appreciate the strengths and expertise of children and families regarding what they want, what they need, and how they define the problem. Moreover, these failures fall disproportionately and most punitively on African American and Latino children and families. Children’s attorneys can and often do confront these inequities and challenge these systems to provide and reconceive justice for children.

These Recommendations of the UNLV Conference on Representing Childrenin Families (“UNLV Recommendations”) embrace and address the complexities and contradictions of seeking justice for children in legal and policy settings. Affirming and building upon the Recommendations of the Fordham Children’s Conference (“Fordham Recommendations”),1 the UNLV Recommendations aim to chart a course for children’s attorneys to discern and amplify children’s voices in all of their complexity and to confront the contradictions of client-directed, multi-disciplinary, holistic, and contextual representation: to cabin themselves to their role as legal experts and to consult children, their families and others with relevant knowledge and expertise regarding the social and material interests of their child clients; and, with the client’s permission, not to confine legal assessment or services to the particular legal issue for which the attorney was retained or appointed. The working group reports that formed the basis for many of the recommendations provide additional context and discussion for these principles.²

1. Recommendations of the Conference on Ethical Issues in the Legal Representation of Children, 64 FORDHAM L. REV. 1301 (1996), reprinted in 6 NEV. L.J. 1408 (2006) [hereinafter Fordham Recommendations].

2. Report of the Working Group on the Role of the Family, 6 Nev. L.J. 616 (2006); Report of the Working Group on the Role of Age and Stage of Development, 6 Nev. L.J. 623 (2006); Report of the Working Group on the Role of Race, Ethnicity, and Class, 6 Nev. L.J. 634 (2006); Report of the Working Group on the Role of Sex and Sexuality, 6 Nev. L.J. 642 (2006); Report of the Working Group on the Lessons of International Law, Norms, and Practice, 6 Nev. L.J. 656 (2006); Report of the Working Group on Representing the Whole Child, 6 Nev. L.J. 665 (2006); Report of the Working Group on Representing Children as Members of Communities, 6 Nev. L.J. 670 (2006); Report of the Working Group on the Best Interests of the Child and the Role of the Attorney, 6 Nev. L.J. 682 (2006).