Talk Justice: Episode 68
Legal Aid Struggles to Meet the Needs of Domestic Violence Survivors
Legal aid lawyers discuss the challenges to meeting clients’ needs for domestic violence-related legal services as cases rise on LSC’s “Talk Justice.” October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. LSC recently released its annual publication “By the Numbers: The Data Underlying Legal Aid Programs,” which provides national and state-level trend data. The report shows a 9% increase in cases involving domestic violence between 2021 and 2022. This continues a concerning trend of increasing domestic violence cases over the past decade.
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Featured Guests
Emily Riley is currently a Senior Supervisory Attorney at Land of Lincoln Legal Aid. The entirety of her legal career has been devoted to serving survivors of domestic violence by providing legal assistance in protective (restraining) orders or in various family related civil actions (divorce, child support, allocation of parental responsibilities). She is also the VOCA Coordinator for all of Land of Lincoln’s service territory which includes 5 offices that serve 65 counties in Central and Southern Illinois. Prior to obtaining her law license, she interned at Land of Lincoln as well. Emily enjoys working within her community to promote awareness of domestic violence and her legal aid organization by providing presentations, trainings, and other outreach.
Susan Pearlstein is a Senior Attorney, Violence Prevention and Policy Strategist in the Family Law Unit at Philadelphia Legal Assistance (“PLA”), the federally funded civil legal aid program in Philadelphia. She received her B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University in 1990 and J.D. from the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Law in 1998. Upon graduation, Ms. Pearlstein received a Skadden Foundation Fellowship to represent young mothers escaping family violence in protection from abuse, child custody, child support and divorce matters at PLA and has continued to represent survivors of family violence following the Fellowship. She has specialized in the representation of immigrant victims of sexual assault and family violence, and is currently overseeing several grants from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women and from the Office of Victims of Crime to serve these clients. Ms. Pearlstein is dedicated to providing trauma-informed services to clients and enabling the legal community to be better informed of how trauma impacts both our clients, their families and ourselves. After supervising the Family Law Unit for over 12 years, Ms. Pearlstein now concentrates on policy and advocacy work while she continues to litigate complex family law matters. She is an active member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, serving as Chair of the Family Law Section in 2022, Chair of several committees, and serves on the Association’s Access to Justice Task Force as a co-Chair of the Family Law Group. She was a member of the Board of Directors of Women In Transition from 2006 through 2013 and served as Secretary for several years. Ms. Pearlstein has presented extensively on family law and the intersection of inter-personal family violence and immigration at local and national conferences and continuing legal education sessions.
Host
Molly McDonough is the senior creative services manager at a large law firm. She previously worked as an independent media consultant for lawyers, legal organizations and legal tech companies. Before that, Molly was editor/publisher of the ABA Journal, where she oversaw the publication’s editorial and business operations. Molly spent much of her career in daily news and legal journalism, including stints at American Lawyer Mediaand the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin. She is active in the Society of Professional Journalists, serving as the Chicago Headline Club Foundation president.