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| Future Students | Current Students | Alumni & Friends | Curriculum | Faculty | Centers | Clinic | Library | Career Planning | CLE | News | Centennial | |||
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| Future Students | Current Students | Alumni & Friends | Curriculum | Faculty | Centers | Clinic | Library | Career Planning | CLE | News | Centennial | |||
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More children are involved in disputes over their custody than at any time in history - some in divorce, others in actions between parents who never lived together. The most serious harm to children comes from parents whose chronic conflict traps children in a maelstrom of events that erodes the child's relationship with one or both parents. High conflict custody cases are detrimental to the development of children causing emotional turmoil and depression, and putting them at a higher risk of mental illness, substance abuse, educational failure, less financial support, and parental alienation. The level and intensity of parental conflict may be the most important factor in a child's postdivorce adjustment and the single best predictor of a poor outcome.
High conflict cases take a disproportionate share of scarce resources, including lawyer, judge and court services. Lawyers, judges and mental health professionals need to explore ways to work with high conflict parents to reduce the time and expense, both emotional and monetary, involved in these cases. This program brings together lawyers, professors and mental health professionals who have developed ways of identifying and working with high conflict couples.
Andrew Schepard is a Professor of Law at Hofstra University Law School and the Co Director of the Hofstra University - North Shore - Long Island Jewish Health System's Center for Children, Families and the Law. He is the author of Children, Courts and Custody: Interdisciplinary Models for Divorcing Families to be published in fall 2003. He is the editor of the Family Court Review, an interdisciplinary journal focused on developing constructive methods for resolution of family conflict. Professor Schepard was the Reporter for the Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation approved by the American Bar Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and the Association for Conflict Resolution. He is a founder of, and project director for, Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness (P.E.A.C.E.), an interdisciplinary, court-affiliated education program for parents to help them reduce the difficulties their children experience during divorce and separation. He founded Hofstra's interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic, in which law students represent abused and neglected children with the help of mental health professionals. He has twice received the Chair's Cup of the Family Law Section of the ABA, and in 2002, Professor Schepard received a special commendation from the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts for his "outstanding contributions to professionals who work with families in conflict." He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Association.
Linda Henry Elrod is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law where she is the Director of the Children and Family Law Center. She is a member of the ABA Steering Committee on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children, Editor of the Family Law Quarterly, and a member of the Joint Editorial Board for Family Law for the NCCUSL. Professor Elrod has served on the state's child support commission, on several advisory committees for children, as chair of the Family Law sections of both the American and Kansas Bar Associations, and as the first woman president of the Topeka Bar Association. She has authored numerous books and articles.
Wes Crenshaw is a Kansas licensed psychologist and is Board Certified in Family Psychology (ABPP). He directs and co-owns the Family Therapy Institute Midwest in Lawrence, Kansas. Among other services, he conducts therapy and custody evaluation for divorcing families.
Ronald W. Nelson is a partner in the law firm of Nelson & Booth in Overland Park, Kansas. He is engaged in a civil trial and appellate practice in complex domestic relations matters, and much of his caseload involves dealing with high conflict custody litigation. He is a contributing author to the Kansas Employment Law Handbook and the Practitioners Guide to Kansas Family Law. Mr. Nelson has written many articles on issues involving child custody, parenting time and jurisdiction issues affecting domestic matters.
Kathryn Nichols has a PhD with a specialty in Clinical Child and Family Psychology and is a therapist in private practice with offices in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas. Her work includes individual therapy with children, family therapy, parenting assessments, psychological testing, domestic mediation, case management and group therapy. She was previously on staff at the Menninger Foundation Child and Family Research Center. Her research included infant attachment, resilience in children and the effects of media violence on children. Dr. Nichols was appointed to the special task force established by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a national effort to develop threat-assessment procedures in the area of school violence. She has published numerous professional articles.
Sheila Reynolds is a Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law, where she teaches Professional Responsibility, Professional Liability and supervises family law cases in the Washburn Law Clinic. She has served on the KBA Ethics Advisory Committee since 1984 and was chair from 1992-1995. She has also taught the Legal Ethics courses of the Kansas Bar Review since 1984. Professor Reynolds co-authored two chapters of the Kansas Ethics Handbook (1996) and is a frequent speaker on the topic of legal ethics.
Larry Rute is a principal in Associates in Dispute Resolution, LLC. His firm provides a wide range of alternative dispute resolution services including mediation, commercial arbitration, private and public judicial proceedings and conflict resolution system design.
Lynn Ward is a shareholder in the law firm of Morris, Laing, Evans, Brock & Kennedy, Chartered, in Wichita, Kansas. She leads the firm's Family Law Department and is the chair of the firm's Marketing Committee. She also is an approved domestic mediator. Ms. Ward has served on the Wichita Bar Association's Family Law Committee for 9 years, and is currently the chair of that committee. She has served on the board of Wichita Legal Services since 1997, and she was on the Board of the Junior League of Wichita for two years. Her practice includes divorce, paternity, custody and adoption matters.
8:00 a.m. Registration
8:30 a.m. Welcome, Linda Elrod, Director
Washburn Children and Family Law Center
8:45 a.m. The Role of the Judge in High Conflict Cases
Professor Andrew Schepard
10:00 a.m. Break
10:15 a.m. The Problem of Alienation: Dealing with the
Alienated Child
Dr. Wes Crenshaw
11:05 a.m. Representing and Protecting Clients in High
Conflict Cases
Mr. Ron Nelson, Esq. and Ms. Lynn Ward, Esq.
Noon Box lunch provided
1:10 p.m. Breaking Impasse: Strategies for Working with
High Conflict Personalities in Mediation
Mr. Larry Rute, Esq. and Dr. Kathryn Nichols
2:10 p.m. Preventing Abduction of Children - UCCJEA and
the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of
International Child Abduction
Professor Linda Elrod
3:00 p.m. Break
3:30 p.m. Avoid Ethical Complaints When Working with High
Conflict Personalities
Professor Sheila Reynolds
4:20 p.m. Adjourn
A reception will follow the seminar.