Claire Bazata

This month we launch our “Fearless Children's Lawyer of the Month” profile to recognize and celebrate lawyers accomplishing remarkable results in their representation of children. Our inaugural profile features a lawyer we met on our 2019 Listening and Appreciation Tour.

Claire Bazata hails from a small town in Nebraska where her clients include youth and children for whom she is appointed counsel by the juvenile courts. Claire began her path toward child advocacy at Health and Human Services (HHS), the Nebraska child welfare agency, where she worked as an investigator and an ongoing caseworker for abuse and neglect cases. She has also worked in a group home for youth with developmental disabilities both doing direct care for youth and then also managing a group home. While at HHS, she was faced with policies and practices that did not make sense and witnessed the lack of services and heavy caseloads that exacerbated the challenges that children in the system already face. Fortunately, some progress has been made with this respect to caseloads in Nebraska. Seeing lawyers in action and noting the impact they could have beyond what she was able to accomplish as a case worker, inspired Claire to go to law school. And while her time at HHS was challenging, it helped her bridge the gap between her efforts and the system.

In 2017, Claire was appointed by the court to a child welfare case in which a child’s therapist recommended a therapeutic foster home or therapeutic foster care. Claire petitioned HHS for this needed service only to be told that the service did not exist. Claire knew such a service had been available in the past, but the state was no longer providing that option. 

Not to be deterred, Claire conducted her own search and ultimately found that Nebraska Appleseed had a team working on this issue. As the team was in the process of fighting to ensure this option was available, they jumped on board with Claire, and together they created a solution. The foster home in which the child was staying (her tenth placement) was assigned an in-home therapist to work with the child and the family to address her needs. The solution has proven to be sustainable and the placement may become permanent. Through her tenacity and collaboration, Claire secured this child the services she needed, and the result may be able to help more than this one child.

Claire has been motivated to advocate for children in two particular ways. First, her own childhood was solid and gave her strength to advocate for those whose life had a different start and path. Second, her own children now serve as a meaningful barometer for her representation and advice. This is because Claire believes that all of the children we see are “our” children and we all have a responsibility to provide them not only with quality legal representation but with a child welfare system that values each child by truly listening to them and being their voice, their future. 

Claire’s advice to other lawyers considering a career that includes representing children is to take the time to listen. Listen with an open mind and don’t assume you know the answer just because the case may look like another. Each client is an individual and each case requires a full understanding of the whole child and the constellation of people and circumstances in their life.

Congratulations to Claire, our March 2020 Fearless Lawyer of the Month!

Know a fearless lawyer? We would like to hear about them. Please share their story with us.