Center Projects

• The P.E.A.C.E. (Parent Education and Custody Effectiveness) Program: P.E.A.C.E. is a court-affiliated, interdisciplinary education program for divorcing and separating parents based at the Center for Children, Families and the Law. Since its founding in 1991, the program has served thousands of families through 16 volunteer programs throughout New York State. (click here for contact information for local P.E.A.C.E. providers). For a copy of the P.E.A.C.E. brochure, click here (PDF).
  
• The Family Law Education Reform Project (FLER): Co-sponsored by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), FLER is leading a reexamination of the family law curriculum at law schools around the country in an effort to incorporate alternatives to litigation (ADR), interdisciplinary knowledge, and essential lawyering skills, all of which are not covered in most law school family law curricula today. FLER has systematically solicited the opinions of hundreds of law professors, judges, lawyers, mental health professional, custody evaluators, mediators, researchers, law students and others in order to better understand how to train family lawyers who can better meet the needs of the families and communities they serve.
• Court Reform Projects: The Center consults with court systems from all over the country and with leading organizations, such as the American Bar Association and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, on family court improvement.
  
• Youth-at-Risk Initiative: At the request of the President of the American Bar Association (ABA), the Center hosted a conference to develop a plan for lawyers to address the problems of youth at risk of involvement with the criminal justice system; truants, runaways, youth aging out of foster care, and youth experiencing high conflict divorce and separation. A detailed national plan for action was created by a multidisciplinary group of experts from around the country and is being implemented by the ABA's youth at Risk Commission. The Centers Director is a member of that Commission.
• Collaborative Law: Collaborative Law is a new framework for lawyers in divorce cases in which they and their clients agree to forego litigation for problem solving through negotiation. Professor Andrew Schepard has been appointed as the Reporter for the Uniform Collaborative Law Act and Hofstra law students have been assisting in the research and drafting of the Act.
  | more |