Call for Proposals for Conference on Child Representation

Representing Children: Ethical and Practical Problems, April 2-3, 2010, Oregon Child Advocacy Project, University of Oregon School of Law, Eugene, Oregon

Representing children charged with delinquent acts or who are the subjects of child custody disputes or juvenile court dependency proceedings presents a host of issues in addition to the perennial favorite, whether to advocate for a child's expressed wishes or best interests. This conference seeks papers that explore these issues. Papers already have been published or may be works in progress. Possible topics might include:

· Client counseling and the best interests/expressed wishes dilemma;

· Competence to stand trial as an alternate approach to the best interests/expressed wishes issue;

· Scope of representation of a child's court-appointed lawyer—If a child in state custody may have a tort claim against the state, what can the lawyer do? What must the lawyer do?

· Representing siblings—current and former client conflicts of interest;

· Confidentiality and the child client—who can you talk to and what can you tell them?

· Impaired adult clients—who can ask for a guardian ad litem and what happens if you don't?

Please submit your proposal to ocap@uoregon.edu by Jan. 25, 2010. For more information, please contact Leslie Harris at lharris@uoregon.edu.


Please be sure to visit www.hardinglaw.com, the website for the law firm of Harding & Associates, for more information on California family law.