Law Students Act as Official Guardians

Article, Chronicle for Higher Education, P. 34

This article published recently in the Chronicle for Higher Education describes a new controversial program that has sprung up in a number of law schools around the country. These programs are called child advocacy clinics, where law students are charged to represent the interests of foster children and also act as their legal guardians. The purpose behind these programs, from an educational perspective, is to expose law school students to the many complicated issues surrounding child representation.

Many law school professors claim that there is a conflict of interest whenever a child's legal representative is also his/her guardian. They argue that a legal guardian may be too emotionally invested in a child to be able to represent his/her best legal interests.

The article describes the experience of a law school student at Southern Methodist University's Dedmen School of Law. He recently fought to unite three siblings who were previously in three separate foster homes. Their mother had been recently jailed for drug abuse. This law school student ultimately had to recommend whether the children should be reunited with their mother. This was a responsibility he did not take lightly.