{"id":41,"date":"2023-10-02T17:50:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T17:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/?p=41"},"modified":"2023-10-24T18:51:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T18:51:32","slug":"attorneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/attorneys\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding rural access to juvenile justice attorneys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New attorneys often struggle to learn the ropes. But the early years of practicing in juvenile law \u2013 a field blending criminal and civil law with complex social and family dynamics \u2013 are particularly challenging.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And working in a rural area, with fewer local colleagues and resources, compounds these difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re rural, you don\u2019t know where to look or who to talk to,\u201d said Audrey Kingston, a general practice attorney in North Platte, Nebraska.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Michelle Paxton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nebraska\u2019s College of Law and its Center on Children, Families and the Law launched the Children\u2019s Justice Attorney Education Program in 2021 to fill these gaps. The program equips rural attorneys to provide high-quality representation through a broad range of tools. The ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families in these communities by retaining skilled attorneys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aviv Foundation and a private foundation fund the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fellows receive extensive training on state and federal child welfare and juvenile justice laws. The program includes education on social and psychological factors.   <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cMany of the skills to be high-quality counsel<\/span> in juvenile court <\/span>go beyond what you\u2019re typically taught in law school,<\/span> including trauma, <\/span>substance abuse, <\/span>human trafficking <\/span>and domestic abuse,\u201d<\/span> said program director Michelle Paxton,<\/span> who also leads the university\u2019s <\/span>Children\u2019s Justice Clinic.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants can consult on cases with an array of child welfare and juvenile justice experts, including psychologists, attorneys, social workers and mental health practitioners. They also learn strategies for coping with the emotional stress of practicing juvenile law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps most importantly, the program connects rural attorneys from across the state. Kingston, a member of the program\u2019s first 12-member cohort, said these relationships are invaluable. Leveraging her peers\u2019 knowledge, she\u2019s learned about different approaches to filing cases and resources available in different communities.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPersonally and professionally, that networking factor was huge,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s great being able to email someone else to bounce ideas off each other, figure out how to juggle a practice and emotionally deal with the work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paxton said the program, now in its second year, could serve as a model for other states with a rural attorney shortage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New attorneys often struggle to learn the ropes. But the early years of practicing in juvenile law \u2013 a field blending criminal and civil law with complex social and family dynamics \u2013 are particularly challenging.     And working in a rural area, with fewer local colleagues and resources, compounds these difficulties. \u201cWhen you\u2019re rural, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[93,96,101,98,102,97,56,94,95,99,38],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlights","tag-audrey-kingston","tag-aviv-foundation","tag-center-on-children-families-and-the-law","tag-child-welfare","tag-childrens-justice-attorney-education-program","tag-childrens-justice-clinic","tag-college-of-law","tag-juvenile-justice","tag-michelle-paxton","tag-rural-attorney-shortage","tag-rural-issues"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}