THE ROLE OF THE ATTORNEY FOR THE CHILD

In a contentious divorce where the couple disagrees on issues of custody and visitation, the attorney for the child is responsible for representing the will of their child-client. How does this lawyer go about determining the child’s position? What resources do they have? And what advice do they have for divorcing parents who are moving toward litigation?

Dawn Cardi is a partner at Cardi & Edgar, a boutique law firm that focuses on matrimonial and family law, criminal defense and civil litigation. With 30-plus years of experience, Dawn has a strong background in helping people resolve family matters as well as handling criminal cases. She was recently named Director of the Women’s Bar Association of New York, and she serves on the Matrimonial Law Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Dawn is regularly invited to lecture on topics related to trial advocacy, criminal and matrimonial law.

Today, Dawn joins Katherine to share how she got started representing children in custody disputes, addressing her role in representing the will the child-client. She explains why trials are a disaster for the family and how conflict between divorcing parents impacts their children. Dawn also discusses the role of the parent coordinator in providing post-divorce co-parenting training. Listen in for insight around how the skills she learned in mediation inform Dawn’s work as an attorney for the child and how undermining your former partner’s parenting can be detrimental to the children.