Family Law

Discover How the Law Applies to Familial Issues through Clinical Experience

Lawyers play a pivotal role in deeply personal life events, requiring strong skills in client counseling, negotiation, mediation, and advocacy. Family Law lawyers help people deal with some of the most difficult issues in life. In this area attorneys handle divorce and child custody, child and spousal support, prenuptial agreements, guardianship, adoptions, surrogacy, and estate planning. Lawyers working on children’s law issues work in dependency (child abuse and neglect), education, juvenile delinquency or policy advocacy. Family law is also interdisciplinary as related issues arise in business law, criminal law (domestic violence), immigration law, international law, and juvenile justice (child abuse and juvenile delinquency).

Miami Law offers numerous clinical opportunities to gain these skills through hands-on experience with clients in our diverse, multicultural city. Our in-house Children and Youth Law Clinic allows students to represent children in foster care and former foster youth in dependency, health care, mental health, disability, independent living, education, immigration, and other civil legal matters. Whether your goal is to work in a government setting, at a non-profit organization, or in a law firm, nationally or globally, Miami Law will prepare you to help clients through life-changing experiences.

Cards

A Grade

We received an A- in Child & Family Law in PreLaw Magazine's 2203 Back to School issue. The law school was also recognized by the publication in 2022 and in 2021 and as a Top 10 law school in Family Law in 2020.

family law badge pre law

Awards

The Public Interest Law Section of the FL Bar awarded Professor Bernard Perlmutter of the Children & Youth Law Clinic with the Hugh Glickstein Child Advocate of the Year Award. Robert Latham of the same clinic was awarded the Outstanding Child Advocate Award in 2022 and previously the Florida Guardian ad Litem Program's Excellence in Advocacy Award.

Leader

Children and Youth Law Clinic Co-Director Professor Kele Stewart serves as co-chair of the AALs section on clinical legal education. In 2021, she was named a Bellow Scholar and to the editorial board of the Clinical Law Review.

Courses

*Course list is not exhaustive and does not set out a path of study.

  • Advanced Family Law
  • Advanced Topics in Reproductive Rights / Reproductive Justice
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • American Legal History
  • Animal Law
  • Bankruptcy
  • Charitable Gifts and Foundations
  • Children and the Law
  • Collaborative Family Law Divorce
  • Complex Issues in HIgh-Profile and High-Net Worth Divorces
  • Companion Animals and the Law
  • Dispositions of the Family Business
  • Education Reform, Policy, and the Social Organization of Schooling
  • Elder Law
  • Emotion and the Law
  • Emotional Intelligence: Life Skills for Lawyers
  • Estate Planning
  • Family Law
  • Florida Family Law: Complex Financial Issues
  • Florida Family Law: Parenting
  • Advanced Family Law
  • Advanced Topics in Reproductive Rights / Reproductive Justice
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • American Legal History
  • Animal Law
  • Bankruptcy
  • Charitable Gifts and Foundations
  • Children and the Law
  • Collaborative Family Law Divorce
  • Complex Issues in HIgh-Profile and High-Net Worth Divorces
  • Companion Animals and the Law
  • Dispositions of the Family Business
  • Education Reform, Policy, and the Social Organization of Schooling
  • Elder Law
  • Emotion and the Law
  • Emotional Intelligence: Life Skills for Lawyers
  • Estate Planning
  • Family Law
  • Florida Family Law: Complex Financial Issues
  • Florida Family Law: Parenting
  • Gender Violence, Social Justice, and Law
  • Introduction to Jewish Law and the Talmud
  • Islamic Legal System
  • Law Firm Management
  • Legal Advocacy and Same-Sex Marriage
  • Legislation
  • Marital Deduction Planning
  • Mediation
  • Mediation Advocacy
  • Mental Health Law
  • Negotiation Skills
  • Negotiation Skills for Client Counseling
  • Non-Litigation Drafting
  • Philanthropy and the Role of Private Foundations in Effecting Social Change
  • Planning for the Family Business
  • Pretrial Litigation
  • Sexuality, Gender Identity, and the Law
  • Social Media and the Law
  • Trial Litigation

 

Academic Programs and Concentrations

Clinics and Practicums

Joint Degrees

Extracurricular Opportunities

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Externships and Internships

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  • Hands-On Learning Opportunities

    *List is not exhaustive and is intended to provide examples of past externships and internships.

    • 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, Domestic Violence Division
    • Advocates for Justice in Education (DC)
    • ACLU (New York, NY and Atlanta, GA)
    • ACLU of Florida’s LGBTQ Rights Division
    • Bristol County District Attorney's Office (Taunton, MA)
    • Broward County State Attorney's Office
    • Catholic Charities
    • Catholic Legal Services
    • Center for Children’s Law and Policy (Washington, DC)
    • Center for Reproductive Rights (New York, NY)
    • Children's Rights (New York, NY)
    • Cook County State Attorney's Office (Chicago, IL)
    • Council for Children’s Rights (Charlotte, NC)
    • Florida Department of Children and Families
    • Florida Legal Services
    • Harris County District Attorney's Office (Houston, TX)
    • Kings County District Attorney's Office (Brooklyn, NY)
    • Lambda Legal (New York, NY)
    • Legal Services of Greater Miami
    • Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office (Los Angeles, CA)
    • Miami-Dade Public Defender's Office - Children's Defense Division
    • Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office
    • Miami-Dade Legal Aid - Child Advocacy and Guardianship Divisions
    • Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office
    • National Women’s Law Center (DC)
    • National Youth Law Center (DC)
    • New York Legal Assistance Group - Family and Marital Law Department (New York, NY)
    • Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem (New York, NY)
    • The Door (New York, NY)
    • U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (Atlanta, GA)

UM Graduate School Partnerships

Miami Law’s Children & Youth Law Clinic is a key partner, along with UM’s School of Education and Human Development, in First Star University of Miami Academy -- a holistic college prep program for youth impacted by the child welfare system.

Miami Law’s Health Rights Clinic has a medical-legal partnership with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to provide legal services at its Pediatric Mobile Clinic; there law students speak with mobile clinic visitors about legal issues such as special education placements, public benefits, and children who qualify for special immigrant juvenile status.

Faculty

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  • Meet Our Faculty Experts

    • Donna Coker, Professor of Law and Dean's Distinguished Scholar, is a national expert on domestic violence.
    • Zanita E. Fenton, Professor of Law, teaches family law and her research interests cover issues of structural inequality and forms of subordination, including those of race, gender and class.
    • Robert Latham is a Clinical Instructor and Practitioner-in-Residence of the Children & Youth Law Clinic.
    • Marni Lennon is Assistant Dean, Public Interest & Pro Bono and Director, HOPE Public Interest Resource Center & Lecturer in Law.
    • JoNel Newman is Associate Professor of Clinical Legal Education and Director of the Health Rights Clinic.
    • Bernard P. Perlmutter teaches in the areas of family law, transnational family law, and lawyering skills: interviewing, counseling and attorney-client relational skills.
    • Kele Stewart is Professor of Clinical Legal Education, and Co-Director of the Children & Youth Law Clinic.
    • Melissa Swain is Associate Director of the Health Rights Clinic and a Lecturer in Law.
    • Judge Ellen Sue Venzer is adjunct faculty, a Circuit Court Judge in the Criminal Division of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in Miami, and the University of Miami’s Judge-in-Residence who teaches in the area of children and the law.
    • Kira E. Willig is adjunct faculty and teaches Florida Family Law: Parenting Issues.

Scholarships & Fellowships

The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center supports students looking to work in the area of family and offers these programs:

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JD Program
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