Why Kids Need Lawyers: Representing Children in Child Welfare Proceedings

Meridith Sopher is the Director of Child Welfare Training at the Legal Aid Society’s Juvenile Rights Practice, where she has practiced as an attorney handling both child welfare and juvenile delinquency cases since 1997. As the Director of Child Welfare Training, Ms. Sopher is responsible for training JRP’s staff at all levels of practice. She has created an initial training core curriculum for attorneys representing children in child welfare cases that is available on the New York Court System’s website for use state-wide. Ms. Sopher also participates in the development of initiatives, model documents, and training materials for staff, and oversees JRP’s Adolescent Practice Team, which focuses on assisting youth ages 18-21 to prepare for life after foster care. She has spoken at conferences sponsored by organizations such as the National Association of Counsel for Children, the Practising Law Institute, the Child Welfare Court Improvement Project, and the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, and she has been an instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s program, “Training the Lawyer to Represent the Whole Family.” 

Ms. Sopher has served as chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Juvenile Justice Committee, and she has also been a member of the Bar’s Council on Children and the Children and the Law Committee. Ms. Sopher was certified as a Child Welfare Law Specialist, and she received her J.D. from Fordham University and her B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Carolyn Silvers is the Attorney-in-Charge of the Legal Aid Society, Juvenile Rights Practice Queens trial office. In her 27 years with JRP, Carolyn has represented young people in child protective, juvenile delinquency, and PINS case in New York City Family Courts in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens and has also supervised staff in all five boroughs. For fifteen years, Carolyn has also worked as an instructor for the National Institute For Trial Advocacy (NITA). She received a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1984 and her J.D. in 1987 from the New York University School of Law.