Details: This CLE will use practitioner-generated hypotheticals to explore the complex and overlapping legal issues facing Minnesota families impacted by recent immigration enforcement actions. Panelists with experience in immigration, family, and child protection law will respond to real-world scenarios and discuss core practice questions, including identifying the client, clarifying client goals, assessing available legal tools across practice areas, determining when to advise versus refer, and finding appropriate community and legal resources when direct representation is not possible. The session will emphasize cross-disciplinary issue spotting, practical strategies for supporting families in crisis, and avenues for consultation when issues fall outside an attorney’s primary area of expertise, with time for audience questions as available.
Presenters: Professor Natalie Netzel serves as the director of clinical legal education, where she oversees Mitchell Hamline’s nationally recognized clinical program. Her teaching interests include criminal law, evidence, child welfare law, and resilient practice. Her scholarly interests include trauma-informed lawyering, trauma-informed pedagogy and law student and attorney mental health and well-being. She is involved with the American Association of Law Schools’ Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education and the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Well-Being Committee. She serves on the Board of Directors for Minnesota Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers.
Professor Netzel has extensive experience representing parents and relatives in child protection cases in district court and on appeal. She relies on that experience to train attorneys, judges, social workers, guardians ad litem, and other professionals on best practices in child protection proceedings. Professor Netzel joined the faculty as a staff attorney with the ITCP in August of 2016. In her time at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, she has served in a variety of roles including the education and advocacy director of the ITCP and the director of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Netzel was a judicial law clerk for the Minnesota Court of Appeals. She received her B.A. from Hamline University, her M.S.E. in counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Superior, and her J.D. from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Anne Carlson is an attorney with Hennepin County Adult Representation Services (ARS). Anne leads ARS’ Community Impact practice area which provides holistic representation for noncitizens in a variety of immigration matters, and advocacy for parents who are being investigated by child protection or at risk of becoming child protection involved. Anne and her team also advise on CHIPS cases when the parents ARS represents have immigration-related legal needs.
Erin Johnson has been an Assistant County Attorney with Washington County in the Juvenile Division for since 2005. She graduated from St. Mary's University with a BA in English Literature and received her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law (now Mitchell-Hamline College of Law). She worked as a judicial law clerk in Dakota County immediately after law school. While at Washington County, Erin has specialized in child protection cases. In addition to her regular case load, Erin has been a member of the Minnesota County Attorney Association's Juvenile Law Committee since 2011, serving as co-chair from 2015-2023. She continues to represent the MCAA on child protection policy issues and legislation. Erin previously served on the Supreme Court Juvenile Protection Rules Committee and is currently serving as a county attorney representative on the Supreme Court Council on Child Protection and Maltreatment Prevention and the MAAFPCWDA Statewide Working Group.
Cathleen Sykes is the owner and principal attorney of Sykes Family Law, P.A. She is a graduate of William Mitchell College of Law, and has practiced exclusively in the area of family law for the past 15 years. Cathleen regularly volunteers with the Volunteer Lawyers Network, assisting families of immigrant children in obtaining predicate family court orders for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status petitions.
Location: Zoom
CLE: 1.5 hours of Standard CLE credit to be applied for