Symposia

Spring 2008 Juvenile Law Seminar

April 3-4, 2008

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Symposium Overview | Schedule | Faculty | Registration

Faculty

Jill Beeler, Chief Counsel, Juvenile Division, Office of the Ohio Public Defender. Ms. Beeler earned her undergraduate degree in criminology/criminal justice from The Ohio State University and her law degree from Capital University. She has worked for the Office of the Public Defender since 1998, and became the juvenile section supervisor in 2003. In January 2008, the juvenile section was promoted to a division, and Ms. Beeler was named Chief Counsel. She has served on the Competency Working Group of the Juvenile Issues Subcommittee of the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on the Mentally Ill in the Courts, which drafted a proposed competency statute for juvenile delinquency proceedings, and is a member of the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on Children, Families, and the Courts, in which she participates on the Rules and Regulations subcommittee as well as the Quality of Representation Subcommittee. Ms. Beeler has testified against various pieces of legislation, including Senate Bill 260, sex offender legislation that was amended to exclude certain juvenile defendants, and Senate Bill 10, which implemented the Adam Walsh Act in Ohio but was amended to limit its application to certain juvenile offenders.

The Honorable Jay D. Blitzman, Juvenile Court Department, Middlesex Division, Lowell, Massachusetts. Judge Blitzman was appointed to the juvenile court bench in June of 1996. Prior to his appointment, he was a founder and the first director of the Youth Advocacy Project, a community based interdisciplinary legal services organization based in Roxbury, MA. Judge Blitzman has served as member of the Supreme Judicial Court Study Committee on the Code of Judicial Conduct and is a member of Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on the Rules of Criminal Procedure. In 2000 he was appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Judicial Ethics.

Since joining the bench, Judge Blitzman has continued to participate regularly in continuing judicial and legal education programs sponsored by Massachusetts CLE, Suffolk Law School's Juvenile Justice Center, and the Flaschner and Judicial Institutes. He has been active in professional and bar association activity and has lectured at a variety of criminal and juvenile justice forums and conferences. The judge was a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association-sponsored Governor's Task Force on the Unmet Needs of Children (1985-1987). Boston Bar Association service has included committee representation on the Juvenile Justice Task Force Study (1990-1992) and the CHINS Truancy study group (1997-1999). The Juvenile Justice Task Force report was published in the New England Law School Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement. In 1994 he received the Boston Bar Association John G. Brooks Public Service Award. The Committee on Public Counsel Services (CPCS) has created a Jay D. Blitzman Youth Advocacy award which is awarded at the agency's annual training.

Judge Blitzman has served as a clinical supervisor for programs sponsored by Boston College and Harvard Law Schools and has also supervised students from Northeastern Law School. Since 1986, the judge has been a regular participant at Harvard Law School's Trial Advocacy Workshop program. Since 2002 he has taught a juvenile advocacy trial skills course at the Massachusetts School of Law.

Judge Blitzman is a summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Union College and also attended the London School of Economics as an undergraduate. He earned his J.D. in 1974 from Boston College Law School. Jay has also acted as an advisor to the writing staffs of the legal dramas, "The Trials of Rosie O'Neill" and "Judging Amy."

Katherine Hunt Federle, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Law & Policy Studies and the Justice for Children Project, The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law. Professor Katherine Hunt Federle received her B.A. in History from Pomona College in 1980, her J.D. from Seattle University School of Law in 1983, and her LL.M. in Trial Advocacy from Georgetown University Law Center in 1986. She began her legal career as a public defender in the state of Washington. She then received a prestigious E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship from Georgetown University Law Center, where she supervised third-year law students in the Juvenile Justice Clinic and represented children and adults in both the D.C. court system and the federal courts.

Professor Federle began teaching in 1986 at the University of Hawaii School of Law, where she held a dual appointment as a researcher at the Center for Youth Research. She subsequently joined the faculty at Tulane Law School in 1990 where she taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Juvenile Law. Professor Federle was selected by the 1996 graduating class to receive the Felix Frankfurter Distinguished Teaching Award. Professor Federle has been especially active in the field of juvenile law. She is admitted to practice in Ohio, Washington, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia, and draws on her extensive experience as a lawyer for children in her teaching and writing. Professor Federle has given Congressional briefings on law-related education and child witnesses, has spoken and presented papers at conferences across the country and around the world on issues pertaining to children's rights and criminal law, and has written numerous articles on the rights of children.

She serves on the Legal Representation Subcommittee of the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Children, Families, and the Courts, the Competency Working Group of the Juvenile Issues Subcommittee of the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Mentally Ill in the Courts, the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Children's Rights, the Ohio State Bar Association Juvenile Justice Committee, and the Juvenile Justice Planning Community Initiative of the Franklin County Domestic Relations and Juvenile Court. Professor Federle also serves as a member of the American Bar Association Litigation Section's Children Rights Committee Working Group and is co-chair of the Child Welfare Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Litigation Section's Children's Rights Committee. She also is a past chair of the American Bar Association Family Law Section's Committee on Juvenile Law and the Needs of Children. While serving as chair, Professor Federle helped draft the ABA's Standards for the Representation of Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases. She also serves as the faculty advisor to a law student organization, Advocates for Children. She has been recognized for her work with the American Bar Association Family Law Section, the Children's Rights Committee of the American Bar Association Litigation Section, and the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Professor Federle teaches Criminal Law, Family Law, Children and the Law, Advanced Issues in the Law of Foster Care, Issues in Adoption Law, and the Justice for Children Practicum at The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law and is the Director of the Justice for Children Project, an interdisciplinary educational and research project housed in the Moritz College of Law. Professor Federle also is the Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Helen Jones-Kelley, Director, Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. Helen Jones-Kelley was appointed director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services(ODJFS) by Governor TedStrickland effective January 8, 2007. As director, she oversees an agency of more than 4,000 full-time employees and an annual budget of more than $17 billion. The department provides a wide range of services including Unemployment Compensation and Workforce Development to Ohio's job-seekers and employers. In addition, the department supervises the provision of a variety of services to Ohio families including Medicaid, TANF cash assistance, food stamps, child welfare and child support.

Previously, Ms. Jones-Kelley served as director of the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services after the Montgomery County departments of Job and Family Services and Children Services merged. She served as the executive director of the Montgomery County Children Services department since 1995. She is also a licensed attorney.

Prior to her work with Children Services, Ms. Jones-Kelley served as a referee (Magistrate) and Assistant Legal Director for Montgomery County Juvenile Court, where she started the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program. In 2003, she was appointed co-chair of the statewide Advisory Council on Children, Youth and Families.

Ms. Jones-Kelley received her Bachelor's degree in Secondary English Education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She earned her law degree from the University of Dayton School of Law. Ms. Jones-Kelley is married to Tom Kelley and is the mother of four daughters, one of whom she fostered.

John Lawson, Esq. John Lawson graduated from Cleveland John Marshall Law School in 1976. John has a long history as an advocate for the rights of individuals and has worked for the betterment of all. He started the free clinics runaway shelter in Cleveland, the first recycling program in Cleveland, and the first Cleveland free radio station. John is a former Cleveland city council member, and a former adjunct professor at Cleveland John Marshall Law School. John was the head of the legal department at Cleveland Works and later became its director. He has practiced extensively in juvenile and family courts and is currently in private practice.

Angela M. Lloyd, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law. Professor Lloyd received her B.A from the University of Notre Dame, her M.A. from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy - Tufts University, and her J.D. from Columbia University. Professor Lloyd is presently an Associate Professor of Clinical Law at the Moritz College of Law, where she teaches in the Justice for Children Practicum. Before joining Ohio State, she worked at Covenant House New Jersey where she served as a senior staff attorney and then as Director of the Youth Advocacy Center and Medical Office. Upon graduation from law school, Professor Lloyd clerked for the Honorable Warren G. Ferguson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Susan Vivian Mangold, Professor of Law, State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. Susan Vivian Mangold is Professor of Law at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law. She has developed courses entitled Introduction to Family Violence, Child Advocacy and the Law, Child Welfare Law, State as Custodian, Law Guardian Practice and Evidence, and The Child Victim. Professor Mangold has published in the field of child welfare law and has presented to audiences of lawyers, social workers, physicians, and others engaged in the protection of children. She was an organizer of the Urban Girls: Entering a New Millennium Conference in April 2000 which gathered over 800 teens, advocates, and scholars to address the unique issues of girls in urban settings as well as other conferences and workshops addressing economic justice, domestic violence, and other issues that impact the lives of children.

Professor Mangold is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. At law school, she was Executive Director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and a co-founder of the Children's Rights Project. She was a staff attorney at the Juvenile Law Center for five years before entering academics. At the Juvenile Law Center, she represented children in abuse and neglect cases and worked on impact litigation in the child welfare, juvenile justice, and mental health areas.

Robin Palmer, LISW, BA, MSSA. Roberta (Robin) Palmer earned her Master of Social Service Administration from Case Western Reserve University in 1988. She is licensed by the State of Ohio as an Independent Social Worker. Her licenses allow her to provide assessments, diagnosis and treatment for emotional and mental disorders. She has specialized training in the assessment and treatment of juveniles who engage in sexual offending behavior. Ms. Palmer is a member of NASW. Ms. Palmer is a trained polygraph examiner. Her training was obtained through the National Training Center of Polygraph Science (1996) and The Argenbright International Institute of Polygraph (1999). She has been trained in statement analysis through Laboratory for Scientific Interrogation. She has also been trained in neurofeedback (direct training of brain functioning) through EEG Spectrum International (2003).

Ms. Palmer is the Director of The Mokita Center, Inc. which she founded in 1986. The Mokita Center is well known for its service provisions to clients who have been found delinquent or guilty of sex offenses. Ms. Palmer has been involved in assessments, diagnostic services, counseling, polygraph examinations, and administrative services such as program planning in her position at The Mokita Center, Inc. The Mokita Center, Inc. has had contracts and/or provided services for clients of Cuyahoga Juvenile Court, Ohio Department of Youth Services, Adult Parole Authority, Lorain County Juvenile Court, Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, Parmadale, and Berea Children's Home.

Ms. Palmer is also the Director of Play by the Rules, Inc. which she developed. Play by the Rules is an innovative public awareness campaign focused on reducing child sexual abuse. This program developed out of her work at The Mokita Center and her recognition that many of the youths she worked with lacked any knowledge of the legal issues involved with sexual behavior. In this position, Ms. Palmer has developed an educational program for middle and high school students to increase their awareness of the legal rules for consent for sex in the state of Ohio and the consequences for violating those rules and increase their understanding of what the law considers sex to be. The program is also being presented to various community groups.

Prior to her development of The Mokita Center, Inc., Ms. Palmer developed the Victim Protection Program for Parmadale Family Services. In her position as Clinical Supervisor, Ms. Palmer provided supervision to clinical and non-clinical staff, program development and treatment services to youth and families accepted into the program.

Ms. Palmer was also employed at West Side Mental Health Center where she developed an adolescent sex offender treatment program and the Cuyahoga County Adolescent Sex Offender Network.

Ms Palmer has provided training, consultation, program evaluation, and polygraphs for numerous sex offender programs across Ohio. These trainings and consultations have focused on program development and clinical and non-clinical service provisions for the adult and juvenile sex offender population.

Mike Schlemmer, Esq. Mr. Schlemmer is a 1971 graduate of Kenyon College and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Akron in 1974. He was an attorney for various Legal Aid offices in Southern and Central Ohio for a number of years thereafter before returning to Knox County where he became a solo practitioner, in which capacity he worked as a private contract attorney handling abuse, neglect and dependency filings for Children's Services. In 1991 he became a full time Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Knox County, where he handled first child support and thereafter all juvenile court filings (other than support) as well as child protection proceedings until 1998. Since 1998 he has been employed by the Children Services Unit of the Knox County Department of Job and Family Services concentrating on child protection proceedings. Mr. Schlemmer has been a frequent CLE lecturer and panelist at child protection seminars, including gatherings sponsored by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Public Children's Services Association of Ohio, the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, and the Ohio Juvenile Judges Association.

Paul Skendelas, Appellate Public Defender, Franklin County Public Defender. Paul Skendelas is a 1981 graduate of the Moritz College of Law. He has been with the Franklin County Public Defender office since 1980, and has been in the appellate division of that office for the past 21 years. During this time, he has handled over 850 appeals in state and federal courts. He has been a frequent contributor to conferences and symposia on criminal, juvenile, and appellate issues for numerous organizations, including the Ohio CLE Institute, the Ohio Public Defender Advocacy Institute, the Columbus Bar Association, and the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He co-presented a paper at an international conference on "Law, Mind, and Brain" held at the University College London on the implications of brain development research on concepts of competency, culpability, and punishment of youthful offenders. He is the past amicus chair for the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and is a past president of that organization.

Steven Wolkin, Esq. Steven Wolkin received his B.A. in psychology from the University of Iowa and his law degree from Tulane in 1977. Steve is a former partner at Belinger, Kaselak & Wolkin in Cleveland and is currently a sole practitioner. Steve has done extensive work as a guardian ad litem in juvenile and domestic proceedings and frequently conducts training and educational seminars for the court and the bar. In December of 2007, he was named Guardian ad Litem of the Year by the Cuyahoga County Bar Association.

Tim Young, Director, Office of the Ohio Public Defender. Prior to directing the Office of the Public Defender, Mr. Young worked in the Montgomery County Public Defender's Office for 13 years. From 2000-2007, Mr. Young served as a Deputy Director in the Montgomery County Public Defender's Office, managing the day-to-day operations of the office and supervising 41 lawyers and 24 support staff. He had previously served as a Supervising Attorney from 1997-1999 and as a Staff Attorney from 1994-1997. Mr. Young serves as a board member for the Volunteer Lawyer Project and is a member of the Supreme Court of Ohio's Committee on the Appointment of Counsel for Indigent Defendants in Capital Cases.

Mr. Young earned his Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Dayton.