ChildLaw at Loyola

Founded in 1993, the Civitas ChildLaw Center stands up for children and their families. Balancing classroom learning with a wide range of hands-on experiential opportunities, Civitas ChildLaw Center equips students with interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills to advocate on behalf of vulnerable children and families in both the litigation and policy realms. With an extraordinary curriculum and faculty, the goals of the Civitas ChildLaw Center are to: 

• Train law students, attorneys, and child-serving professionals to serve the unique legal needs of children and families;
• Provide high-quality legal representation to child clients;
• Advocate for laws, policies, and practices that advance children’s rights;
• Advance knowledge of children’s rights through research, scholarship, and training;
• Serve the educational needs of children through litigation and policy reforms;
• Promote improved public child-serving systems;
• Create greater public awareness of children’s circumstances, needs, and rights;
• Contribute to building children’s law as an area of legal specialization; and
• Strengthen the quality of justice for children. 

While achieving these goals, the Civitas ChildLaw Center commits to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of our work, including client representation, policy development, teaching, scholarship, programming, and student, staff, and faculty support.

Addressing Issues in Child and Family Law

The Center offers an extensive curriculum of more than 30 courses in child and family law. The Center’s unique interdisciplinary approach draws on expertise from diverse fields including social work, medicine, psychology, and education to give students a holistic view of children’s needs. This learning model prepares students to work effectively with other professionals to serve children’s interests, regardless of what career path they take. The program spans a wide range of topics, including: 

• Child welfare
• Juvenile justice
• Education law
• Immigration and human trafficking
• Child- and family-centered legislation and policy
• High conflict private parenting disputes
• International jurisdictional and child kidnapping cases

The Center pushes students to expand their knowledge in and out of the classroom. The Center’s multiple clinics, conferences, symposia, and “coffee talk” series provide hands-on exposure to real-world challenges in child and family law. Graduates are well-equipped to make a difference in the lives of children, whether through direct legal representation, research, or legislation and policy reform.

ChildLaw Alumni Make a Difference

Civitas has served as a fertile training ground for generations of child advocates, with more than 230 ChildLaw Fellows serving in leadership roles across Chicago, the nation, and the globe. This growing network of experts improves the lives of millions of children and families each year. Alumni serve as leaders in the public, private, and government sectors, and have earned prestigious fellowships including with the Fulbright Program, the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, and Equal Justice Works. 

The ChildLaw Fellows program is for students who seek a law degree with the intent to advocate for children after they graduate. ChildLaw Fellows receive $24,000 in financial support over three years. This support includes tuition assistance to pursue a course of study in child law, and assistance with the first summer internship experience. Support will also be available for a limited number of Fellows for their second summer’s internship. Together, these opportunities are intended to build the knowledge, skills, and professional perspective necessary for a career dedicated to children’s welfare. 

The application for the ChildLaw Fellows program is now open. Learn more about the program and apply.

We are pleased to offer a Certificate in Child & Family Law for JD students, an MJ in Children’s Law & Policy, and an LLM in Child and Family Law. These programs are designed to prepare law students, attorneys, and other professionals to defend and advocate for children in need.