ON-DEMAND WEBINAR FOR FAMILY LAW PROFESSIONALS

Moving Beyond Conflict:

Child-Centered Decision-Making Post Pandemic

The past year was costly for children. From school closures and distance learning to increased familial stress, uncertainty, and anxiety. These issues are exacerbated for children whose parents are in conflict and may not have the tools or ability to make child-focused decisions. Additionally, the pandemic produced a variety of new challenges and decisions for parents living separately, making child-centered decision-making even more challenging.

This webinar, moderated by Elle Barr, Esq., introduces child-centered decision-making concepts related to children’s best interest, children’s voices, and children’s overall wellbeing and functioning and then apply these concepts to a family law perspective. Specifically, this webinar will introduce a child-centered decision-making approach for considering decisions related to the return to the classroom, vaccinations, and addressing children’s overall mental health. 

Over the 90-minute program, attendees will learn about:

- The United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child as it relates to Best Interest, the Right of Voice, the Right to Education, and the Right to Protection.

- Child-centered decision-making concepts related to children’s best interest, children’s voices, and children’s overall wellbeing and functioning, and how to apply these concepts to a family law perspective.

- How to help their clients leverage a child-centered decision-making approach for considering decisions related to the return to the classroom, vaccinations, and addressing children’s overall mental health.

Speakers

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Michael Saini, PhD, MSW, RSW

Dr. Saini is an Associate Professor, holds the endowed Factor-Inwentash Chair in Law and Social Work, and is the Co-Director of the Combined J.D. and M.S.W. program with the Law Faculty. Dr. Saini has generated new knowledge regarding the assessment of co-parenting; the complexity of strained parent-child relationships; and the impact of interparental conflict. He is a Board Member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), Access for Parents and Children of Ontario (APCO), Family Mediation Canada (FMC), the Canadian Coalition of the Rights of the Child (CCRC) and he is Associate Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers. Dr. Saini has over 200 publications, including books, book chapters, government reports, systematic reviews, and peer-reviewed journal articles. In 2019, he was awarded the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts’ Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award, sponsored by the Oregon Family Institute.

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Laura Burrows Haviland, Esq.

Laura Burrows Haviland is a native of Atlanta, GA, and received her undergraduate degree from Emory University and law degree from The University of Baltimore School of Law. Ms. Burrows Haviland and her husband, Eric Haviland, run a family law firm in Annapolis, Maryland and have two boys. She is an experienced trial attorney, mediator, and Parenting Coordinator. She has successfully tried cases throughout Maryland in high-conflict divorce and custody matters involving drug and alcohol use disorders, domestic violence, child abuse, restrictive gate-keeping, parental contact failure, relocation, de facto parents, special needs, adult destitute children, autism, disabled children, child support, rehabilitative and permanent alimony cases, business valuation cases, high net worth cases, and more. Ms. Burrows Haviland has been recognized by Super Lawyers for 10 years and was recently recognized by What’s Up Magazine. She is an active Board Member on the Maryland Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (“AFCC”). Her passion is advocating for children by utilizing her experience from high conflict divorce cases to identify disputes between parents and develop creative, actionable resolutions to resolve the disputes. During the Global Pandemic, with major delays in family cases, Ms. Burrows Haviland recognized the need to train and coach other family law professionals, parents, and the Judiciary in the area of Parenting Coordination. She is a sought after speaker, having presented and taught nationally and internationally in the areas of Family Law and Parenting Coordination.

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eralyn Lawrence, Esq.

Jeralyn L. Lawrence is certified as a Matrimonial Law Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She is the Managing Member and Founder of Lawrence Law with offices in Watchung and Red Bank. She practices in all areas of matrimonial and family law including divorce litigation, mediation, arbitration, custody and parenting time issues, alimony and child support, separation and property settlement agreements, adoption and guardianship advice, domestic partnership matters under the Domestic Partnership Act, domestic violence and sexual abuse, and palimony. She is also a trained collaborative lawyer and divorce mediator. A fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), Ms. Lawrence is President of the Academy’s New Jersey chapter and has been certified by the AAML as a Family Law Arbitrator. She is also President-Elect of the New Jersey State Bar Association, and a Past Chair of the NJSBA’s Family Law Section and Past President of the Somerset County Bar Association.

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Hon. Robert A. Schnider

Judge Robert A. Schnider received his AB degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967 and his JD degree from the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law (now UC Berkeley School of Law) in 1970. He was partner in the law firm Schnider & Schnider from 1971 until his election as Commissioner of the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1981. In practice, he was a Certified Family Law Specialist. In 2002, Commissioner Schnider was appointed Judge of the Superior Court. Since 1981, he was assigned to the Family Law Department handling a variety of family law assignments including ex parte/domestic violence, Office of District of Attorney enforcement and general trial matters. From 2005 through 2007, Judge Schnider was the Supervising Judge of the Family Law Department.

Judge Schnider has lectured and taught extensively to both lawyers and judicial officers and has received several awards including the Spencer Brandeis Award from the Family Law Section of the LA County Bar, the Judicial Officer of the Year Award in 1997 from the Family Law Section of the State Bar of California and the Outstanding Jurist Award in 2000 from the Los Angeles County Bar Association.

ABOUT OURFAMILYWIZARD

The OurFamilyWizard website and mobile apps offer divorced and separated parents an array of tools to easily track parenting time, share important family information, manage expenses, and create an accurate, clear log of co-parenting communication. Working in tandem with clients on OurFamilyWizard, family law and mental health practitioners can assist families to move beyond conflict and co-parent with confidence.