Leading domestic violence advocates, lawyers, social workers, and mental health professionals reflected on the movement’s decades-long progress in New York City and New York State while examining its ongoing challenges during the twentieth annual Fordham Forum on Domestic Violence held on May 9–10.
This year’s two-day conference titled “Milestones, Roadblocks, and the Journey Forward” featured five panels and a keynote address focused on measures combating intimate partner violence in the context of key issues, such as child welfare, mental health, and serving transgender survivors.
In his opening remarks Monday morning, Fordham Law Dean Matthew Diller celebrated the forum’s ability to reflect the “exceptional depth and breadth of New York State domestic violence policy and practice” and credited the leadership of former Fordham Law Dean John Feerick for starting the forum.
Diller’s remarks preceded a four-person keynote conversation that traced the domestic violence movement’s early days—when the first shelters were women’s living rooms—to the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) and the present.
In framing the discussion, co-moderator Charlotte A. Watson, executive director of the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts, recalled a time when abusers were described obliquely as “one of those” and many women considered domestic violence—a phrase yet to be coined—as an inescapable aspect of life. The panelists discussed a wide range of key milestones, including the Domestic Prevention Act in 1987, which created for the first time a steady stream of money for shelter programs.
Domestic violence cases are often complicated, as participants in Monday’s first panel noted. That panel, titled “Child Welfare and Parental Rights: Achievements and Challenges Post Nicholson v. Scoppeta,” featured a reunion of sorts for many of the plaintiff’s attorneys and advocates, moderator and plaintiff’s attorney Jill Zuccardy noted.
Charlotte Watson, Gwen Wright, Lynn Rosenthal, and Maribel Martinez-Gunter. Photo by Ray Legendre
Lead plaintiff Sharwline Nicholson spoke of the horrors of temporarily losing custody of her children after calling 911 to get medical treatment for her injuries at the hands of her abuser, the father of her youngest child, despite being the victim. Her intent in seeking legal aid was to retain custody of her two children, not to become wrapped in five years of litigation, she said.
Nicholson v. Scoppeta is quoted multiple times a day in child welfare court proceedings, said panelist Lauren Shapiro, director of the Family Defense Practice for Brooklyn Defender Services. Shapiro and other panelists spoke about the need for better training for child welfare personnel, the damage to children that the removal of a mother or father can cause, and the need to view certain domestic violence events in context of other corresponding household factors.
Today, Nicholson travels the country speaking out against domestic violence. Her children grew up happy and healthy, she said.
“It has been a struggle, but it was worth the struggle,” she said of her legal fight, drawing a standing ovation from the conference’s attendees.
Other panels delved into topics such as specialized domestic violence courts, interdisciplinary practice with mental health professionals, the criminal justice response to intimate partner violence, and serving transgender and gender nonconforming clients.
