This issue is our second relating to COVID-19 and family law. It is entitled Family Law During COVID-19: Practical Responses and Systemic Innovations. We began planning for it early in the pandemic, not expecting that the disease would still be prevalent at the time of publication. At the time of this writing (February 2022), more than 900,000 Americans have died of the virus. Approximately three-quarters of Americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and the United States is thankfully seeing a decline in cases following a dramatic increase from the Omicron variant.
March 16, 2022 Columns
Editor’s Note
Lisa F. Grumet
This year marks the second year that New York Law School (NYLS) has been the academic home for the FLQ and the first year that we have been able to meet on campus. Congratulations to the 2021–22 Editorial Board for terrific work in planning for our first semester in person, teaching seminar classes, developing new protocols, and overseeing the work of editing articles and updating 50-state survey charts. Congratulations also to all Editorial Board members, Senior Editors, and Junior Editors for their work on this issue and others to come. I would like to specifically thank and congratulate student Editor in Chief April Pacis, Executive Articles Editor Fatin Assaf, Executive Law-in-50 Editors Carolina Abdullah and Natalie Gutierrez, Curriculum Editor Mathew Fontanez, Managing Editor Megan Brandon, Research and Reference Editor Sarah Chebli, Development and Communications Editor Victoria Wilton, and Special Projects Editor Kelly Barrett.
Thank you to our authors: FLQ Board of Editors member Samuel V. Schoonmaker IV; former ABA Family Law Section Fellow Sarah White, Christine Scartz, Jamie Bormann, and all members of the Georgia TPO Project; Margaret “Pegi” Price and Jack Hamlin; the NYLS 2020–21 FLQ Editors; and Professor Maxine Eichner and the University of North Carolina School of Law Research Team. Their wonderful contributions to this issue are summarized in the separate introduction by Samuel Schoonmaker that follows this Editor’s Note. Thank you also to ABA Family Law Section Chair Candace B. Peeples and Family Law Section Director Cindy Swan; to the FLQ Board of Editors and ABA Publishing Managing Editor Lisa V. Comforty; and to ABA Designer Betsy Kulak, ABA proofreader Betsy Blumenthal, and ABA Director of Digital Publishing Kyle Kolbe. Additionally, thank you to NYLS Dean Anthony W. Crowell; Associate Dean William P. LaPiana; the NYLS faculty, administration, and staff; and Diane and Arthur Abbey.
We hope that the articles in this issue provide helpful perspective on some of the many challenges relating to family law in the time of the pandemic, as well as lessons learned and potential future reforms. Best wishes to you and your families.
All my best,
Lisa F. Grumet, Editor in Chief, Family Law Quarterly; Director, Diane Abbey Law Institute for Children and Families; Associate Professor of Law, New York Law School