Other Resources - Court Appointed Attorneys

Appeal Handbook Grievance Policy

CAAP provides contracts and oversight of contract legal counsel throughout the state on civil mental health matters. If you wish to bring something to CAAP’s attention concerning your attorney please use the form (opens as a PDF) located here.

Corinne Wolfe Children’s Law Center

The Corinne Wolfe Children’s Law Center offers many resources for child welfare The 2018 New Mexico Child Welfare Handbook can be viewed online. It provides summaries of the child abuse and neglect process and highlights best practices. Check Corinne Wolfe Children’s Law Center for updates and other resources.

Corinne Wolfe also hosts an online listserv discussion group for respondent attorneys and for guardian ad items and youth attorneys. Contact Cristen Conley at conley@law.unm.edu or call 505-277-5933 to join the pertinent list serve.

New Mexico Family Advocacy (NMFAP) ECHO Interactive Training Series

NMFAP Training Resource Library

Past Training Materials, Links and Information

Human Centered Lawyering: Using a Compassion-Based Framerwork to Better Understand and Connect with Families in the Child Protection System

Presented by Professor Vivek Sankaran and Sheri Freemont.

Video link pending upload

handout: The Science Behind Compassion

handout: Compassion – The Necessary Foundation to Reunify Families

Speaker Bio:

Speakers’ Bios

Professor Vivek Sankaran, ’01, advocates for the rights of children and parents involved in child welfare proceedings. His work focuses on improving outcomes for children in foster care by empowering their parents and strengthening decision-making processes in juvenile courts.

A clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, Sankaran directs both the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic, through which law students represent children and parents in trial and appellate proceedings. Sankaran has written numerous articles focused on improving the child welfare system and has litigated cases before the Michigan Supreme Court. In addition, he conducts state and national trainings and works on child welfare initiatives with various national groups, including the American Bar Association, Casey Family Programs, and the National Center for State Courts.

After graduating from Michigan Law in 2001, Sankaran received a Skadden Fellowship to represent children at The Children’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he remained until 2005, when he joined the Law School faculty. In 2009, Sankaran founded the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, the first organization in the country to provide multidisciplinary legal assistance to families to prevent the unnecessary entry of children into foster care. In 2011, he was named Michigan’s Parent Attorney of the Year. Most recently, Sankaran co-edited both the first national book for family defense lawyers and the third edition of Child Welfare Law and Practice, a widely recognized resource used by child welfare lawyers across the country.

Sheri Freemont is the Managing Director of the Judicial and National Engagements Team of Casey Family Programs, a national foundation aiming to reduce the need for foster care. She studied Indian law at Arizona State College of Law and practiced criminal and child welfare matters in State and Tribal courts. She serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Counsel for Children. She was raised bi-culturally and uses her experiences and education to focus on how values and intentional human reflection can impact child welfare practice.

Implementing the Spirit and Intent of the Indian Family Protection Act