Nationally Known Adoption Law Institute Open to Local Attorneys Seeking Continuing Legal Education

July 21, 2009

[ Register Online ]

Capital University Law School and the National Center for Adoption Law & Policy are pleased to offer attorneys the opportunity to attend the Summer Adoption Law Institute (SALI), an intensive weeklong law school course exploring adoption and related child protection issues from both academic and practitioner perspectives. Since 2006, SALI has drawn more than 200 law students from across the nation; now attorneys can benefit from this nationally known course.

The course runs Aug. 3-7 at Capital University Law School, 303 E. Broad St., Columbus, Ohio. Up to 23.5 Continuing Legal Education credits are available.

Capital University Law School is the first U.S. law school to regularly offer an entire course dedicated to adoption law. The class will cover a wide variety of topics, including the history of American adoption law, parental rights under the U.S. Constitution, assisted reproductive technology, wrongful adoption, race and cultural issues in adoption, and sexual orientation issues in adoption.

The course will be taught by Angela Upchurch, Real Living academic director of the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy and associate professor of law at Capital University Law School. Upchurch is a published scholar in the area of children’s legal rights and procedural law and is a contributing author to the ABA Center on Children and the Law, A Judge's Guide: Making Child-Centered Decisions in Custody Cases (2001).  

Summer Adoption Law Institute is designed as a general overview of adoption and is not state specific. However, there will be class exercises providing attorneys and law students with an opportunity to explore the law in the jurisdiction of their choice. The class format includes discussion of issues from academic and practitioner perspectives, guest lecturers and panelists. Casey Ross-Petherick, Deputy Director for the Native American Legal Resource Center at Oklahoma City University School of Law will be lecturing on the Indian Child Welfare Act. Two panels of various adoption triad members, including adoptive parents, an adoptee, and a birth mother, also will be held.

The course runs Monday, Aug. 3, through Thursday, Aug. 6, from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm, allowing 5 CLE credits per day and Friday, Aug. 7, from 8:30 am to 12:15 pm, allowing 3.5 CLE credits. Legal practitioners can choose to attend the entire weeklong course or an individual day(s) at a cost of $100 per day Monday through Thursday and $75 for Friday.

For more information or to register, contact the National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital University Law School at (614) 236-6730, or visit www.law.capital.edu/adoption.