Upcoming Fordham Law Review Symposium Will Explore The Law As It Relates to Parents and Parenting

The Fordham Law Review will be holding its annual fall symposium on Nov. 5, focusing on legal issues facing parents and families. The program is sponsored by the Carlinsky Family Dean’s Faculty Research Fund.

Two dozen scholars, practitioners, and advocates of different backgrounds and expertise from across the country have been invited to participate in the virtual event. Together, they will discuss fundamental questions about how the law defines and treats parents, as well as how economic security, race, sexual orientation, and class are central to considering these questions.

“We were really excited to work with Professor Clare Huntington, one of the symposium’s organizing professors, who brought this topic to the Law Review‘s attention,” said Grant Emrich ’22, executive symposia editor. “There have been a number of both positive developments and unfortunate setbacks that have happened in recent history when it comes to family law and issues facing families.”

Tatiana Hyman ’22, editor-in-chief of the Law Review, echoed Emrich’s sentiments, adding that the law plays a major role in child development. “This topic is extremely relatable because everyone deals with family,” Hyman said. “But, we also wanted to make sure that this was a forum where people could better realize the impacts [of the law on families].”

Professor Huntington expressed gratitude to the Law Review for both recognizing the topic’s importance and for hosting the symposium this semester. She, along with Professors Bennett Capers and Catherine Powell, have been collaborating with the journal on this symposium since the spring.

“We are framing the day around theoretically complex legal issues that have an enormous real-world impact on families, and in this examination, we are underscoring the relevance of class and race to a family’s experience raising children in the United States,” Professor Huntington said. “Our goal in this academic symposium is to bridge theory and practice, bringing together scholars, practitioners, and advocates to generate and share knowledge.”

(L-R) Professors Bennett Capers, Clare Huntington, and Catherine Powell

What to Expect

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center and co-founder of the TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund, will serve as the keynote speaker.

Fordham Law Professors Capers, Leah Hill, Powell, and Julie Suk, as well as Professor Anne Williams-Isom FCLC ’86 James R. Dumpson Chair in Child Welfare Studies at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service, will each moderate panels throughout the day.

The first panel, titled “Becoming a Parent,” will tackle intricate questions about current conceptions of parents. One panelist, for example, is expected to discuss their scholarly work about how U.S. laws and regulations tend to assume the presence of a two-parent or single-parent family structure—when some families may have more than two parents—and how the law can adapt to these new realities. Other panelists will discuss fertility and access to reproductive services as well as the disparities in access to those kinds of services.

Professor Williams-Isom will moderate the second panel of the day, titled “Supporting Parents.” Some panelists, Emrich and Hyman say, will be sharing their work about how the U.S. government has historically failed in supporting parents.

“Some authors will be making arguments that recognize the current plans of the Biden administration, but will also go beyond that—including highlighting the gaps in the current administration’s plan and how those gaps can be addressed in the near future,” Emrich added.

The third panel, titled “Criminal Regulation of Parents,” will explore how low-income parents—especially low-income parents of color—face scrutiny, including within the criminal justice system. “A lot of people think about family law as a civil issue, but there’s a criminal overlay as well,” Professor Huntington said, “and always has been historically.”

The fourth and final panel, titled “Where We Have Been/Where We Are Headed: The Past and Future of the Law of Parents,” will look at the long-term future of U.S. laws regarding parents.

“One of the big issues is the role of parental rights, which some people see as anachronistic,” Professor Huntington explained. “There are some scholars who think we should be focused much more on children’s rights, but then there are folks, like me, who think parental rights have an important role to play in the modern legal system, especially as a bulwark against state intervention in the lives of low-income families of color.”

Symposium Panel Line-Ups

Panel 1: Becoming a Parent

Moderated by: Leah Hill, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

Courtney Joslin, Professor of Law, UC Davis Law School
Elizabeth Kukura, Professor of Law, Drexel Law School
Robin Lenhardt, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law School
Doug NeJaime, Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Karla Torres, Senior Human Rights Counsel, Center for Reproductive Rights

Panel 2: Supporting Parents

Moderated by: Anne Williams-Isom, Professor, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service

Aziza Ahmed, Professor of Law, UC Irvine Law School
Eleanor Brown, Professor of Law, Penn State Law School
Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, UVA Law School
June Carbone, Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Maxine Eichner, Professor of Law, UNC Law School
Solangel Maldonado, Professor of Law, Seton Hall Law School
Jason Jackson, Professor of Political Economy and Urban Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Panel 3: Criminal Regulation of Parents

Moderated by: Bennett Capers, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

Meghan Boone, Professor of Law, Wake Forest University Law School
Michele Goodwin, Professor of Law, UC Irvine Law School
Priscilla Ocen, Professor of Law, Loyola Law School
Lauren Shapiro, Director, Brooklyn Family Defense Project, Brooklyn Defender Services
Charisa Kiyô Smith, Professor of Law, CUNY Law School

Panel 4: Where We Have Been/Where We Are Headed: The Past and Future of the Law of Parents

Moderated by: Julie Suk, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law

Anne Dailey, Professor of Law, UConn Law School
Clare Huntington, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
Melissa Murray, Professor of Law, NYU Law School
Laura Rosenbury, Dean and Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Elizabeth Scott, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Gregg Strauss, Professor of Law, UVA Law School