Report on High Conflict Custody Continuing Legal Education Program
The Children and Family Law Center at Washburn Law hosted sixty lawyers, judges, mental health professionals and students at the continuing legal education program, High Conflict Custody: The Role of Lawyers and Judges, Friday, September 12, 2003 in the Washburn Memorial Union.
Professor Andrew Schepard of Hofstra Law School and Director of the Hofstra-North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System's Center for Children, Families and the Law, outlined the devastating effects of parental conflict on children in his keynote presentation. He offered ten ways judges and lawyers could change their systems to make the process less adversarial for children and their parents.
Wes Crenshaw, a child psychologist, talked about the problems of alienation and how to work with alienated parents and children. Johnson County attorney Ron Nelson and Wichita attorney Lynn Ward shared secrets for dealing with the clients involved in high conflict cases. Mediators Larry Rute and Dr. Kathryn Nichols explored ways to "get past no" and move clients to resolution in mediation. Professor Linda Elrod highlighted ways for lawyers to advise parents to prepare for the possibility of abduction; ways for lawyers to help prevent abductions through appropriate orders and how to use the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction to retrieve wrongfully taken children. In the last segment, Professor Sheila Reynolds explored ethical concerns that can catch lawyers who get caught up with their high conflict clients' world.
Learn More About The Presenters
Andrew Schepard, Wes Crenshaw, Linda Henry Elrod, Larry Rute, Sheila Reynolds, Lynn Ward, Ronald Nelson
Keynote Presenter
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.
Coordinator/Presenter
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.
Presenters
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.
