A
s we marvel at the beauty of autumn and approach
the winter holiday season, I want to welcome you to
our fall/winter edition of The Docket. September
2013 marked my 5th year with The Children’s Law Center.
CLCNY continues to be an exhilarating place to work. My
staff and managers are amazing and our clients energize me
with their insight and resilience in often difficult circumstances. Our goal is to represent the outcome that our client seeks. Our impact is providing the child’s voice when
the family is at its most vulnerable point and looking to the
court for help.
Founded on the belief that children deserve skilled, zealous
advocates in the court system, we provide comprehensive
and holistic representation to children in custody/visitation,
domestic violence, guardianship, paternity, and related child
protective cases. Zealously and effectively representing
children during each courtroom appearance is at the heart
of what we do every day at CLCNY. In addition to our court
work in both Family and the Integrated Domestic Violence
Parts in Supreme Court, we continue our mission with our
developing Reflective Advocacy Practice (RAP). Some of
our RAP projects include our Securing Seamless Education
Services (SSES) Project and our Broken Adoptions Project.
Staff involved in RAP, along with direct representation,
actively look at policy and practice implications impacting
children involved in the court and other community systems
in order to educate ourselves or others about any actual or
potential impact to the children we serve. Additionally, in
collaboration with our social work and support team one of
our core values is to offer a continuum of client management
services once the case is transitioned from the courtroom
back into the community.
In my 5 years with CLCNY, I am inspired by the positive
ways we impact our clients every day. I am equally excited
to mention our internal and external working groups exploring, ways to improve the practice and marshal community
resources to assist children and families. We also have a
core committee of staff and managers who are presenting at
the city, state, and national level on issues that impact child
advocates across the country. I am pleased that our team,
including our Board of Directors and managers, provides the
structure to handle our direct trial and appellate work while
also developing our staff as a voice in many forums for our
clients. A team member at CLCNY means being part of a
group which ensures that our mission to give a child a strong
and effective voice in a legal proceeding that had a critical
impact on his or her life is achieved.
In this edition I want to share the work
that the court is also working on that
we are and active stakeholder. Thank
you to Frank Woods for permission to
reprint from the Child Welfare Court
Improvement Project, an article
on Promoting Continuous Quality
Improvement Through “Collective Impact.” See page 11 in The
Docket.
I wish you an enjoyable fall and
winter.
Karen P. Simmons, Esq.
Executive Director
Welcome to CLCNY
Welcome to our new board member, Linda Gerstel, Esq. who is of
counsel at Anderson Kill, based in the firm’s New York and Stamford offices.
Ms. Gerstel is a general commercial litigator and also practices in
the area of alternative dispute resolution. She serves on various
court mediation and arbitration panels and recently taught a clinic
at the Catholic University in Ghana.
Linda Gerstel Esq. and Janet Neusteatter Esq.
at 2013 ERVA event
She represents individuals, small and middle market companies
as well as non-profit institutions. She serves on various other nonprofit boards directed to women’s issues and education. She is “
AV “ rated, a top peer rating by Martindale and has been listed by
various publications among New York Woman Leaders in the Law.
Fall/Winter 2013 CLCNY? 3?