Child Advocacy Law Clinic Staff

Even before Donald N. Duquette joined the Law School's clinical program in 1976, he was devoted to child advocacy issues and served as an assistant professor of pediatrics and human development at Michigan State University. A graduate of MSU, he was a social worker specializing in child protection and foster care before earning his J.D. at the University of Michigan Law School. Over the years, as a clinical professor of law and the director of the Law School's Child Advocacy Law Clinic, Don has developed one of the most respected and influential child advocacy law programs in the country. His book, Advocating for the Child in Protection Proceedings, formed the conceptual framework for the first national evaluation of child representation as mandated by the U.S. Congress (National Study of Guardian ad Litem Effectiveness, by CSR Inc). Now Don's most recent book for which he served as co-editor and an author, Child Welfare Law and Practice: Representing Children, Parents and State Agencies in Abuse, Neglect and Dependency Proceedings, defines the scope and duties of a brand new legal specialty in child welfare law and prepares experienced lawyers for a national certifying examination. Along with working on the book, he is co-director of the National Association of Counsel for Children's national project to certify lawyers as specialists in child welfare law. The NACC child welfare specialty gained American Bar Association accreditation in February 2004. Don's research and teaching interests are clinical law and interdisciplinary approaches to child welfare law and policy. During a leave from the Law School, he managed an expert work group for the U.S. Children's Bureau and drafted Permanency for Children: Guidelines for Public Policy and State Legislation as part of President Clinton's Adoption 2002 Initiative on Adoption and Foster Care. He also manages the Law School's Bergstrom Child Welfare Law Summer Fellowship Program and in winter 2004 started the Law School's first mediation clinic.

Frank E. Vandervort, clinical assistant professor of law, has spent his professional career immersed in child welfare issues. His interests include child protection, juvenile delinquency, and interdisciplinary practice. Frank has served as legal consultant to the U-M School of Social Work's Family Assessment Clinic since 1997 and has consulted on three federally funded interdisciplinary training programs for child welfare professionals: The Interdisciplinary Child Welfare Training Program, the Training Program for Public Child Welfare Supervisors, and currently, the Curriculum for Recruitment and Retention of Child Welfare Workers. A member of the Michigan Child Death Review State Advisory Committee and the Citizen Review Panel on Child Death, he also has served as a consultant to the Michigan Judicial Institute, the Office of the Children's Ombudsman, and the State Court Administrative Office's Permanency Planning Mediation Program. Prior to joining the faculty, he was program manager of the Michigan Child Welfare Law Resource Center. He has also been as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law where he taught courses in Family Law and Juvenile Justice. He earned his B.A. from Michigan State University and his J.D. from Wayne State University Law School.

Vivek Sankaran is a clinical assistant professor of law in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic. His research and policy interests center on improving outcomes for children in child abuse and neglect cases by empowering parents and strengthening due process protections in the child welfare system. He sits on the Steering Committee of the ABA National Project to Improve Representation for Parents Involved in the Child Welfare System and chairs the Michigan Court Improvement Project subcommittee on parent representation. He has also authored scholarly pieces and practical resource guides to assist professionals working with parents in the system and regularly conducts national and statewide trainings on these issues.

Vivek earned his B.A. magna cum laude from the College of William and Mary. He earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an associate editor on the Michigan Law Review. After law school, he joined The Children's Law Center (CLC) as a Skadden Fellow and became a permanent staff attorney with the CLC in September 2003. He supervised attorneys handling child abuse and neglect matters and carried his own caseload representing children, parents, and caregivers in abuse, custody, and domestic violence proceedings at both the trial court and appellate levels in the District of Columbia. In 2004, he was named the Michigan Law School Public Interest Alumni of the Year and in 2006, was certified as a child welfare specialist by the National Association of Counsel for Children. He currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Foundation and is a member of the Equal Access Initiative of the Michigan State Bar.

Alicia Lixey brought 20 years of legal experience with her when she joined the Child Advocacy Law Clinic as a legal assistant in 1995. In 2000, Alicia became the clinic administrator. She uses the wealth of experience and information she has accumulated over the years to help CALC students navigate their cases and she keeps the CALC office, which is really a small law firm, running efficiently.

Her prior experience with courts and attorneys preparing legal documents, working with court calendars, overseeing court filings, interacting with clients, and all the details involved in running a law office are well used here at the Law School.

Alicia says that the most rewarding part of her job is working with the students. "We have such a diverse group every term," she says. "I enjoy getting to know each and every student in the clinic - learning their different backgrounds, what they did before Law School, and about their dreams." She helps them with their clinic class materials, getting to the courts in the various counties, prepares mock trial and hearing simulations, and tries to make sure that they don't get too stressed while trying to handle their Law School classes along with their clinic cases. "One of the things we all enjoy is having periodic clinic luncheons throughout the semester. These help all of us get acquainted and become a more cohesive group."

Kimara Thompson joined the Child Advocacy Law Clinic in June 2008. Kimara will be helping the students prepare their pleadings to be filed in court, maintain their case files, makes sure all matters are current before scheduled court hearings and in any other way she can.