Professionalism & Ethics Symposium

Join NACC for a dynamic Professionalism and Ethics Symposium designed for child welfare legal practitioners. This timely series brings together diverse perspectives and practical guidance on the professionalism and ethical challenges shaping child welfare legal representation today.

Grounded in real-world experience and client-centered values, each session fosters thoughtful dialogue and meaningful engagement while offering actionable strategies to address the ethics and professionalism issues practitioners face in their daily work.

Attendees can earn up to 9 hours of ethics and professionalism CLE credit while gaining fresh insight, shared understanding, and practical tools to support ethical, professional, and high-quality legal representation in dependency proceedings.

Summary of sessions:

Day One – March 4

Sustaining Ethical Child Welfare Advocacy: Boundaries and Attorney Well-Being

11:00am – 12:30pm ET

Marcía Hopkins, MSW – Support Center for Child Advocates

KaSandra Rogiers, JD, MPH – K.A. Rames, PC

Child welfare practice demands high levels of commitment, empathy, and availability—often placing attorneys at risk of burnout and blurred professional boundaries. This session will explore ethical duties related to competence, diligence, communication, and supervision, and how unmanaged stress and overextension can undermine professional judgment and client representation. Attendees will gain practical strategies for setting boundaries, managing workload expectations, and sustaining effective, ethical advocacy over the long term.

Ethical Child Representation: Duties, Considerations, Conundrums

1:00 – 2:30pm ET

Professor Myles Lynk, JD, Dean and Emeritus Professor, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

Allison Green, JD, CWLS, NACC Chief Legal Officer

Natalece Washington, JD, CWLS, NACC Policy Counsel

Join legal scholar Myles Lynk and NACC staff for a discussion of the unique ethical contours of children’s legal representation: duties of advocacy, confidentiality, loyalty and more. Participants will learn about recent updates to Model Rule 1.14, practice its application, and learn about ethical opinions from across jurisdictions that inform their duties.

Day Two – March 5

Professionalism, Ethics, and Peer Support Specialists in Child Welfare Cases

11:00am – 12:30pm ET

Bionca Green, Peer Advocate Benefits Specialist– Defender Association of Philadelphia

Aminah E. Husam-Young, MS– Defender Association of Philadelphia

Duane Price, Peer Advocate– Defender Association of Philadelphia

Anthony Simpson, Peer Advocate– Defender Association of Philadelphia

Sydney Stafford, JD – Defender Association of Philadelphia

As multidisciplinary legal representation increases, peer support specialists—including parent partners and lived-experience advocates—are playing an expanding role in child welfare cases. This session will explore how child welfare attorneys and peer support specialists can navigate professional responsibilities related to confidentiality, boundaries, role clarity, mandated reporting and client protection. Attendees will gain practical guidance for ethical, effective coordination that supports high-quality, multi-disciplinary representation in dependency proceedings.

Professionalism & Ethics in the Virtual Child Welfare Courtroom

1:00 – 2:30pm ET

Angela Sager, MPA, Senior Court Management Consultant, National Center for State Courts

Mariarenee Contreras, JD, Court Management Consultant, National Center for State Courts

Remote hearings are now a core part of child welfare practice—and they bring unique professionalism and ethics challenges. This session will equip child welfare attorneys with practical guidance for meeting ethical obligations in virtual and hybrid dependency hearings while preserving due process, confidentiality, and courtroom decorum.

Using best practices from the Guide for Remote Dependency Hearings, the session will address attorney professionalism in the virtual courtroom, effective client communication during remote proceedings, safeguarding privacy and safety, managing technology disruptions, and promoting meaningful family engagement. Attendees will gain concrete strategies to strengthen advocacy, protect clients’ rights, and maintain the seriousness and integrity of child welfare proceedings in a remote environment.

Day Three – March 6

The Human in the Loop: How AI Might Make You a Better Advocate

11:00am – 12:30pm ET

Bridgette Carr, JD – University of Michigan Law School 

Vivek Sankaran, JD, CWLS – University of Michigan Law School

As artificial intelligence tools become increasingly accessible, child welfare attorneys face complex ethical questions about when—and how—to use them in practice. Some practitioners avoid AI entirely, while others risk overreliance that may compromise professional judgment. This session will explore the ethical considerations surrounding AI use in child welfare legal practice, with a focus on attorney competence, confidentiality, supervision, and accountability. Attendees will examine the responsibilities of both individual and supervising attorneys and engage in thoughtful discussion about how to integrate emerging technologies while upholding ethical obligations and client-centered advocacy.

Playing By the Rules Representing Families

1:00 – 2:30pm ET

Kayana Bradley, PSS, MHFA – NACCLR; Southeast Louisiana Legal Services

Gwendolyn Clegg, JD – Oklahoma Office of Family Representation

Valerie Frost, M.Ed. – Sunlight

Louie Gasper, BA – ABA Center on Children and the Law

Maci Kean, MBA – NACCLR; National Adoption Association

Moderated by Shannon Felder, JD, CWLS, NACC Training Director

Most attorneys know what the Rules of Professional Conduct say — but how do those rules show up in real-world child welfare practice? This interactive CLE will explore key professional responsibility rules through the lens of day-to-day representation of families. Attendees will examine what ethical obligations look like in practice, including communication, confidentiality, diligence, and the attorney as advisor. Guided by the perspectives of a managing attorney and lived experience experts, the session will encourage meaningful conversation about how we can move beyond technical compliance toward ethical practice that truly supports families involved in the child welfare system.  Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how professional conduct rules apply in child welfare legal matters and concrete ideas for strengthening ethical, client-centered representation.