The Interplay of Lawyers & Social Workers Toward Family Restoration

This guest post is offered by Mary Shelton, Regent Law 2020 Graduation Candidate and current Family Law student:

Studies show that lawyers could spend as much as 80% of their time acting in a role closer to that of a counselor rather than strictly as a legal advocate. Conversely, social workers can be tempted to offer legal advice without having the background necessary to know the full implications of that advice. Social workers are a great resource and help to clients, but are fallible just like any other human professional. Sometimes they read the situation wrong or have a personal view of what is mistreatment that goes beyond what can be regulated by the state. On the other hand, collaboration between social workers and lawyers can be highly beneficial, especially to children caught up in court proceedings.

Lawyer/social worker teams can help balance the power dynamic between government social workers and parents. Tension between parents and agencies investigating allegations of child abuse often run high—what parent would not feel threatened by a governmental agent foreboding the potential removal of their children from their home? By providing legal services, and making the parent feel protected and heard, lawyers can help alleviate the natural tension and frustration occurring when custody is on the line. Notably, when lawyers and social workers work as a dynamic team to help in the representation the parent, while the government-employed social worker works on behalf of the child, out of home placements are significantly reduced.

In fact, one study evaluating a multidisciplinary team representing children in child welfare identified three key elements that best served children: 1) attorneys who respected and trusted social workers’ skillsets, 2) social workers were more effective advocates at communicating with state agencies, and 3) social workers could access needed client services more quickly without agency encumbrance.  This produced better outcomes for children. 

In my Note, “The Interplay of Law and SocialWork: How lawyers can benefit from a social work perspective in advocating forthe best interests of mistreated children,” I explore the lawyer/social worker dynamic and how each profession can benefit from understanding the other, to ultimately better serve children and their families.