The Organization of Child Representation Services in Child Welfare Cases: A Study of Washington State

To date no empirical studies have analyzed delivery of legal services to children and considered the implications of organizational structure for child representation practice. This study of 126 attorneys in Washington State compares children's lawyers working in solo practice, private law firms, and specialty staff attorney offices. The manner in which child representation is organized has lessons for the recruitment, training, and support of such lawyers. Staff attorney offices offer a number of advantages but rural areas with fewer cases may not be able to support such offices and the attorneys in specialty offices were less experienced and report lower incomes. Key Points for the Family Court Community: Readers will learn what characterizes attorneys who work in solo practice, private law firms, or in specialty staff attorney offices, including their experience, continuing legal education, types of law practice, access to different resources like investigators and social service professionals and attitudes toward their practice as child representatives. On these same dimensions, readers will learn whether attorneys who work in solo practice, private law firms, or in specialty staff attorney offices differ from each other. Readers will have the opportunity to reflect on the implications of these findings for the organization of child representation services and for future research.