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Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly

Professor Kelly is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Center for Social Justice in the Family Law Clinic. He teaches Family Law, Marriage and Divorce, Family Mediation and Family and the State. He is also director of the Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program and has worked for New Jersey Protection and Advocacy in Trenton, New Jersey, handling impact litigation cases in federal and state court on behalf of disabled individuals.

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Programs and
Research Centers

Family Law Clinic

SEE COURSE DESCRIPTION
Professor: Kevin Kelly, (973) 642-8394

Offered: Fall and spring semesters. Credits: 5

Introduction
The Family Law Clinic provides free legal services to individuals needing representation in a wide variety of family law matters. The caseload may include both contested and uncontested divorces; establishment, modification and enforcement of child and spousal support; custody and visitation cases; international child abduction cases; adoptions; and litigation on behalf of battered women. Students may also serve as court-appointed law guardians for children in termination of parental rights cases and custody and visitation cases.

The work includes interviewing, investigation, legal research, motion practice, discovery, negotiation, preparation of lay and expert witnesses, contested and uncontested trials and hearings, oral argument of motions, and the preparation of trial and appellate briefs. Students work under the supervision of the clinical professors, but assume primary responsibility for their assigned cases, including court appearances.

Clinical Law Practice
Students work closely under the supervision of clinical faculty in all phases of case work from initial client interview through trial, and appeal where warranted. Students will interview and counsel clients, work with interpreters, interview witnesses, conduct factual investigations, engage in legal research and analysis, draft moving papers and legal documents, argue motions, conduct negotiations, prepare clients and witnesses for trial, and conduct trials. Students may conduct and defend depositions and participate in the appeal of cases.

Students are required to spend a minimum of fifteen hours per week in practice during the spring and fall semesters, and at least thirty hours per week during the summer.

Recent cases handled by students include:

  1. Appearing as amicus in an appellate case which held that custodial parents are entitled to  collect interest on past-due child support payments;

  2. Assisting a woman who resides in her marital home with her children and is paying the primary mortgage.  Her estranged husband, who separately owns additional property, took out a home equity line of credit secured by the marital home.  He failed to make payments, leading to a foreclosure complaint.  Family Clinic students represented the woman in both the foreclosure action and in a divorce action.  A judgment was obtained, whereby the husband would encumber his separate property to pay the home equity line of credit, saving the marital home from foreclosure. 

  3. Representing  the spouse of a professional boxer in her attempt to enforce an order of child support.  The boxer had been fighting in Nevada.  The students, while investigating his application for a professional license in that state, discovered that he had obtained the license by certifying that he owed no child support.  Students were able to obtain orders of enforcement from New Jersey courts, and are seeking to implement them in other states where the husband has bouts.

  4. Representing a woman who had left her career in India to follow her husband to the United States.  Once here, the husband physically abused both the woman and their child.   Clinic students researched both American and Indian law, eventually defeating the husband’s attempts to prevent the woman from returning to her family in India.  Students obtained a child custody order, permission to leave the United States, and an order of financial support.

  5. Assisting a disabled elderly client who was seeking a Restraining Order again her adult son.  The son had terrorized his mother, including destroying the door of her public housing apartment.  As a result, she faced eviction from her long-time home in subsidized housing.  Following the efforts of a local legal services office, which was able to secure a dismissal of the eviction, Clinic students negotiated a further settlement with public housing authorities which allowed the woman to keep her home, and live without fear of further abuse from her son.

     

    The Seminar
    The classroom component will include lectures and simulations reviewing the substantive law in the practice areas, basic practice and procedure, evidentiary issues, and advanced  trial advocacy skills. 

Criteria for Admission

Students who have completed or are taking Family Law: Marriage and Divorce will be given preference.

Note: you will be required to attend class, office hours and court hearings during the day. If your employment situation is not flexible in this regard, e.g., if you are an evening student, this may well not be an appropriate clinical placement.