Fall 2017 - Winter 2018 MSU School of Social Work Newsletter MSU-Social-Work-2017-2018-Newsletter | Page 4

Delanie Pope named Woman of the Year
by Michigan Lawyer’s Weekly
A
s selected by her peers, Delanie P. Pope is
the Michigan Lawyers Weekly (MiLW) 2017 Woman
of the Year. Pope, a staff attorney and clinical
assistant professor at the Michigan State University
Chance at Childhood Law and Social Work Clinic in
East Lansing, received the honor September 7 during
MiLW’s 8 th annual Women in the Law luncheon at the
Detroit Marriott Troy. The 30 honorees of the class of
2017 voted amongst themselves for the Woman of the
Year via a secret ballot. “It’s a great honor to be here
amongst all the many talented women,” Pope said upon
receiving the award. She thanked the MSU School
of Social Work and College of Law, and also all the
students she has worked with over the past ten years,
for “providing the platform by which I can do the work
that I enjoy doing so much.”
Pope specializes in children’s legal issues and
oversees the day-to-day activities of the clinic, which
is staffed by MSU law students and MSU social work
students. The clinic’s interdisciplinary student teams
handle a wide variety of matters involving family and
children’s interests, including custody, guardianship,
and adoption matters. In all cases, student teams
advocate for the child’s best interests. Pope manages
over 100 cases per year to ensure that students meet all
their statutory requirements and provide to the courts
the highest quality work product.
“For me, practicing law means helping families,
which in turn builds a stronger and healthier
community,” Pope explained. “Sometimes we help
them in small, unremarkable ways. Some days, we help
them in ways that will change their lives forever, like
bringing parents and children together, or in some
cases getting kids out of bad—even dangerous—
situations.”
“For me, practicing law means
helping families, which in turn
builds a stronger and healthier
community.”
—Delanie Pope
In addition to supervising students’ casework,
Pope also responds to numerous calls and emails
from professionals and laypersons in the community
seeking advice regarding children’s legal issues. Many
parents and kinship caregivers struggle to navigate the
legal system without legal representation, and Pope
provides them with invaluable assistance.
In 2012, Pope worked to open the Ingham County
Self-Help Center in collaboration with the Ingham
County Friend of the Court and Ingham County judges.
The Self-Help Center is staffed by CAC students
and supervised by CAC staff to provide assistance to
unrepresented litigants. The Center provides badly
needed legal self-help services to the community and
increases access to the court system for those unable to
afford legal representation. The Center also improves
the court’s ability to provide timely and efficient court
rulings and orders in family court cases.
In February 2017, Pope spoke in San Francisco
at the National Conference for the Self-Represented
Legal Network. Her presentation regarding the use
of interdisciplinary law/social work student teams to
provide holistic “wrap-around” services in legal self-
help centers was exceptionally well received.
Left, Delanie Pope. Right, Delanie Pope joined by the Chance at Childhood team and other nominated attorneys.
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Fall 2017/Winter 2018 SSW NEWS