PROFESSOR JOHNSTON-WALSH TO PRESENT AT THE 2025 AALS ANNUAL MEETING IN SAN FRANCISCO IN JANUARY
December 2024 — Professor Lucy Johnston-Walsh has been invited to speak by the AALS Family and Juvenile Law Section for the Works in Progress panel during the AALS Annual Conference in January of 2025.
Professor Johnston-Walsh will be presenting on her current research article entitled “Whose Money is it? Unfair Taking of Foster Kids’ Social Security Benefits to Pay for the Cost of Care.” The AALS Annual Conference will take place in San Francisco in January of 2025. Professor Johnston-Walsh’s research focuses on governmental practices of claiming foster children’s Social Security benefits to reimburse the state for the cost of care. The article examines how various jurisdictions have implemented new legislation and analyzes the constitutional issues raised by the practice.
Lucy Johnston-Walsh is an assistant professor of law and founding director of the Dickinson Law Children’s Advocacy Clinic. Professor Johnston-Walsh’s research, teaching and service focus on juvenile law, specifically legal challenges of youth involved in the foster care system. She supervises law students in the legal representation of youth involved in the dependency system and her scholarship directly relates to systemic issues presented through the clinic cases, as well as interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of child advocacy. Her recent scholarship has been published in both medical journals and law reviews including articles in Family Court Review, Akron Law Review and Seattle Journal for Social Justice.