CHILD AND FAMILY LAW CLINIC

John Kelly

“My name is John Kelly, and I am so grateful to be the David A. Paige Fellowship recipient for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Child & Family Law Clinic has given me the opportunity to grow personally and professionally over the past year. I have had the pleasure of working with clients, attorneys, and other state officials to represent the interests of children in child custody proceedings. The clinic has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in law school, and I cannot describe how great it feels to see the children happy with the outcome in the end.”

John Kelly (’23) completed the DAPF’s first fellowship in the The University of Arizona Law School’s Child and Family Law Clinic. The Law School’s Child and Family Law Clinic is a working law office in which law students represent children in child protection proceedings.

Working with staff from the Florence Immigration and Refugee Rights Project, John was part of a Transnational Family Task Force to help families, attorneys, and judges navigate the complex task of a juvenile immigration case in the United States. A juvenile immigration case is an area of law that needs different collaborators to see the case from start to finish. It requires attorneys with expertise in immigration and family law, as well as coordination with the Department of Child Safety and other stakeholders in the relevant communities.

“I had the privilege of joining the taskforce to help create a cohesive document containing the work that the rest of the team and I had put together. I had the opportunity to work with members of the Mexican Consulate as well as various immigration and juvenile agencies in and around Arizona.

“The premise of the toolkit is to assist people navigating a juvenile immigration case. The toolkit covers things such as case inception, where to contact family members, and where to find other resources necessary for a case. A primary focus of my work was on helping children who may qualify for juvenile immigration status. It is a process that can take several years to help a child gain permanent status in the United States, which is often tied to helping the Department of Child Safety achieve permanency status for children in their care.”

The David A. Paige Foundation is committed to supporting law students passionate about child and family law.

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