Committee Leadership

All committee leaders are expected attend their committee meetings and the Committee Leaders’ Meetings held in conjunction with the Sections Fall and Spring CLE conferences, submit committee status reports, facilitate the submission of CLE proposals by committee members, organize communication with committee members, submit a Committee Corner article for the Section’s eNewsletter, a produce a brown bag teleconference.

Some committee leadership appointments require additional responsibilities. Additional responsibilities are listed under the corresponding committee description. 

Adoption

The Adoption Committee is concerned with the operation and effect of the statutes, regulations, judicial decision, rules of court, new directions for legal development and recommendations with regard to adoption of minor children (including those born by natural means as well as by means of artificial insemination and surrogate motherhood as well as parental loss of rights to said children).

Alimony & Spousal Support

The Alimony & Spousal Support Committee is concerned with the operation and effect of statutes, regulations, judicial decisions, and rules of court relating to alimony, maintenance and spousal support on the state and federal level and the relationship of alimony to other financial aspects of divorce.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

The Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee is focused on studying private and court-based mediation and arbitration methods, and developing training programs.

Bankruptcy

The Bankruptcy Committee is concerned with studying and recommending policy relating to divorcing spouses who file for bankruptcy to deprive other spouse of marital property.

Child Support

The Child Support Committee is concerned with the operation and effect of statues, regulations, judicial decisions, and rules of court relating to child support on the state and federal level.

Communications

The Communications Committee is responsible for working with Section staff to develop, update and monitoring the Section's communications policies, social networking accounts, and electronic discussion groups, as well as recommending new ways for the Section to communicate with its members and other interested parties through alternative media. 

The Communications Committee is also responsible for submitting an article and producing a brown bag focused on communication tips for attorneys. 

Custody

The Custody Committee studies and strives for improvements in the law relating to child custody and parenting time, such as development of a model joint custody statute, standards for relocating children and rights of stepparents and unwed parents.

Diversity

The Diversity Committee strives to promote diversity within Section membership and our practice. We recognize, and embrace, that the members of our legal community as well as our clientele, have evolved into a rich mosaic of people from diverse cultures, beliefs and backgrounds. As an organization, and as lawyers, we need to better understand the broader issues of diversity, as well as the cultural norms and the cultural differences of our society as a whole and how these issues impact the practice of Family Law and the families that we serve.

Additional responsibilities: administering the Section's Fellowship Program.

Domestic Violence

The Domestic Violence Committee is focused on enhancing the awareness, knowledge, and skills of attorneys working with victims of domestic violence. It strives for improvements in the laws to protect victims of domestic violence, including children who have witnessed abuse and is concerned with fostering an exchange of information with other substantive committees regarding the impact of domestic violence in other areas of the law. 

Health and Wellness

The Health & Wellness Committee is focused on educating lawyers of all experience levels on how to identify and assist with mental health issues in our profession; promoting the importance of work-life balance and the benefit it brings to the practice; ending the “stigma” associated with mental health issues. 

International Law 

The International Law Committee is active in arranging reciprocity in family support with foreign nations, with the enforcement of child custody orders and the return of abducted children including the development and implementation of the Hague Abduction Convention, and with the presently ongoing development of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoptions. The committee maintains a work liaison with the Hague Conference, the U.S. State Department, other international organizations and committees and with other committees of the Family Law Section.

Jean Crowe Pro Bono Award

Prior to the Section's Spring Conference, the Section of Family Law Jean Crowe Pro Bono Award Committee selects an attorney to receive the Jean Crowe ABA Section of Family Law Pro Bono Award.

Law Practice Management & Technology

The Law Practice Management & Technology Committee promotes marketing and management education and innovation to the Section membership to assist them in building and maintaining a successful Family Law Practice.

Law Student

The Committee’s mission is to further the Association’s goals and purposes, and thereby serve the community and the legal profession; to represent law students in the Association and the FLS, and to represent the Association to law students; to help shape the policies and priorities that affect law students; and to create a deliberative forum for the exchange and expression of law students’ views, and a voice to advocate those views. 

This committee’s goal will be to (1) encourage law student membership in the ABA FLS and increase the participation of the Section’s current law students in section activities and (2) assist law students in beginning their family law careers, expand their knowledge regarding family law, and teach them the operations of the Section of Family Law (the “Section”). In addition, the committee will serve as the bridge for law students seeking to participate in the Section of Family Law.

Marital Property

The Marital Property Committee is focused on informing and instructing members of the Family Law Section in fundamentals of characterization, valuation and division of Marital Property (marital and separate) and trial techniques of presenting contested and emerging issues in marital/community property in all states through continuing legal education seminars, publications and other means.

Member Benefit Development

The goals of this committee are to solicit, enroll and retain attorneys throughout all jurisdictions as members of the largest and most representative organization of lawyers who deal with family law issues, as well as enhance a positive image of the family lawyer by highlighting and promoting the contributions of the Section of Family Law and its members to the welfare of the family unit through research projects and educational programs. 

Military Law

The Military Law Committee studies issues relating to clients in the military and their families, including procedural issues unique to the military, and custody and visitation, divorce, alimony/support, military pension division and Survivor Benefit Plan issues affecting military divorces. Reviews state and federal legislation and initiatives where ABA policy is affected, and teaches lawyers how to deal with military matters affecting state court legal disputes.

Modest Means

The Modest Means Committee is concerned with educating practitioners on working with clients with limited financial resources.

Podcast

The Podcast Committee is responsible for identifying topics and speakers for the Section's newly created podcast. The members of the committee are also responsible for editing the podcast. 

Program Support Fund

The Program Support Fund Committee is responsible for identifying opportunities to raise funds for the Section's Charitable Fund and promoting the Fund during the Section's conference and other campaigns.

Schwab Essay Contest

The Schwab Essay Contest judges conduct an annual contest as a memorial to Howard C. Schwab, a Past President of the Toledo Bar Association and Past Chairman of the Family Law Committee of the Ohio Bar Association to create greater interest in the field of family law among all law students, and particularly the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association

Special Needs Families

The Special Needs Families Committee studies and educates practitioners on family law issues related to families including a special needs adult or child.

Sponsorship & Fundraising

The Sponsorship & Fundraising Committee solicits corporate and exhibit sponsors for the section and its fall and spring meetings to assist the section with maintaining financial stability.

Committee members are expected to attend month sponsorship calls. 

Taxation

The Taxation Committee serves as a source of tax knowledge, provides tax-related education for family lawyers, and assists in developing regulations, statutes and amendments to law to address tax-related problems in the area of family law.

Trial Practice & Techniques

The Trial Practice & Techniques Committee is concerned with developing and enhancing trial skills in divorce litigation.

The Trial Practice & Techniques committee leaders are responsible for producing the monthy Trial Practice brown bag series. 

Vulnerable Adults

The Vulnerable Adults Committee studies and educates practitioners on family law issues related to older and/or disabled clients, including issues related to health care, long term care planning, retirement, guardianship, and Social Security.

Young Lawyers

Encourages the participation of the Section's young lawyer members and new lawyers to the field of family law in the Section of Family Law and in the community. The committee's goals are to assist young and new lawyers in advancing their family law careers and to expand their knowledge regarding family law. The committee also aims to teach young and new lawyers the operations of the Section of Family Law, and to get them actively involved within the Section of Family Law. In addition, the committee serves as the bridge for young and new lawyers to the Section of Family Law.