Vivek Sankaran, ’01, a clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, 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.
Featured Scholarship
"The ties that bind us: An empirical, clinical, and constitutional argument against terminating parental rights"
Family Court Review
- Children and the Law
"The New Orleans Transformation: Foster Care as a Rare, Time-Limited Intervention"
Lewis and Clark Law Review
- Children and the Law
"A Quiet Revolution: How Judicial Discipline Essentially Eliminated Foster Care and Nearly Went Unnoticed"
Columbia Journal of Race and Law
- Children and the Law
"Comment: Without Effective Lawyers, Do More Determinate Legal Standards Really Matter?"
Stanford Law & Policy Review
- Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility
Activities
Presented “The Need For High-Quality Legal Representation in Child Welfare Cases” and “Litigating Termination of Parental Rights Cases” at the Oklahoma Children’s Conference, Oklahoma City.
Presented a webinar, “Preventive Legal Advocacy—How Lawyers Can Help Prevent Children from Unnecessarily Entering Foster Care,” for Casey Family Programs.
Presented “In re Ferranti and its Aftermath” at the Family Division Referee Seminar sponsored by the Michigan Judicial Institute, Lansing, Michigan.
Presented “When Opportunity Knocks: Leveraging Title IV-E Funding to Advance Legal Representation for Children and Their Families” at the 42nd National Child Welfare Conference, Anaheim, California.
Presented “Legal Advocacy as a Prevention Strategy” at the Children’s Bureau’s Community Collaboration to Strengthen and Preserve Families Annual Grantee Meeting, Washington, D.C.
Presented “Updates in Child Welfare Law” to the Wayne County Juvenile Trial Lawyers Association, Detroit.
Presented “How to Create a Trauma-Responsive Courtroom: What to Expect From Your Attorneys” at the Alia Judges’ Summit, Minneapolis.
Facilitated a panel discussion on “IVE Reimbursement for Parent and Children’s Attorneys: A Prevention Tool to Support Families Through Legal Representation” at the National Council of Family and Juvenile Court Judges Conference, Orlando.
Spoke at a panel discussion, “Death by a Thousand Cuts: Recent Trends in Family Law,” at the NAACP National Convention, Detroit.
Presented “A Revolution of Values—Three Fundamental Principles that Should Guide Child Welfare Reform” and “Legal Representation as a Prevention Strategy” at the Wyoming Joint Symposium on Children and Youth, Cheyenne.
Co-facilitated the “Family Defense Appellate Workshop” for Michigan’s State Court Administrative Office, University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor.
Presented “Sparking a Revolution of Values: Changing the Narrative in Child Welfare Cases” at the Protecting Delaware’s Children Conference, Child Protection Accountability Commission, Dover, Delaware.
Presented “The Legal Representation as a Prevention Tool” at the Courts as Critical Partners in Navigating Prevention Through Permanency Conference, Atlanta.
Participated in the panel discussion, “Presumed Guilty: Parents of Color in the Child Welfare System,” at the 38th Annual Sparer Symposium, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia.
Served on the faculty of the National Legal Aid and Defenders’ Association Appellate Training, New Orleans.
Co-presented “Separating Children From Their Parents” at the Michigan Statewide Conference on Abuse and Neglect, Plymouth, Michigan.
