The Child Advocate Law Firm PLLC

08/11/2025

The National Association of Counsel for Children always puts on a great conference. The whole firm is here listening, learning, and collaborating with passionate attorneys from all over the country.

05/15/2025

Morgan was honored to be included in a reception at the Governor’s Mansion followed by a roundtable discussion on how to improve our child welfare system.

03/11/2025

Community Attention Foster Families (CAFF) is actively searching for families in Charlottesville, Albemarle, and surrounding communities.

02/19/2025

Waiting lists for Albemarle County's Treesdale 2-Bedroom, Treesdale 3-Bedroom, Crozet Meadows, and Scottsville Schools voucher programs are open NOW until Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at 4 pm.

These programs provide monthly rental subsidies to help families seek and obtain safe and affordable housing. Due to the high demand for vouchers, the Albemarle County Department of Human Services' Office of Housing uses a lottery-based waiting list system.

➡️ Learn more about housing choice vouchers, eligibility requirements, and apply at www.albemarle.org/waitlist.

08/30/2024

The Child Advocate Law Firm PLLC is excited to announce that Sophy Kron, Esquire and Corry Andrews, Esquire have joined the firm “of counsel.” We are hoping to model for the Commonwealth of Virginia the change that is needed to ensure high quality representation of children as guardian ad litem.

Guardian ad litems are court appointed to represent children in a variety of cases including Dependency (children in foster care), Child in Need of Services (children whose conduct poses a risk to their own safety or the safety of others), Child in Need of Supervision (children who run away or who are truant), Delinquency (children who commit an act that would be criminal if they were an adult), and custody and visitation. This work is some of the most important in our court system because we are advocating for the health, safety, and welfare of children. To do this work, we are visiting children in their homes and schools; we are listening to children and giving them a voice; we are working with families to help them access community services; we are building up support systems for children; and we are serving the courts by being lawyers in these complicated cases. We are doing the required investigation and then ensuring that proper evidence is presented on behalf of our wards and best interest recommendations are made.

Unfortunately, the court appointed pay for guardians ad litem has not changed since 1996. This makes a venture of this kind challenging from a financial perspective. This work has been referred to as “welfare for lawyers,” meaning only lawyers who can’t do something else sign up to do this work. In many ways the current system is failing children, families, and lawyers. We would like to be a symbol of change—bringing lawyers together who are passionate about the high quality representation of children and serving our courts well.

If you are interested in becoming a financial partner with us, please contact Danielle Wingfield at [email protected]. As a full time law professor, she is not presently taking cases, but she is a champion with us for this cause and is working to try to help us become a sustainable practice.

For all guardian ad litems who work tirelessly on behalf of children, thank you. We acknowledge how hard this work is and the sacrifice it takes. We hope to be an encouragement to all of you as well.

A Voice for the Vulnerable Providing compassionate, effective, and highly skilled representation to children as Guardian Ad Litem. Children deserve to have an attorney who will develop a relationship with them, fight for their best interest, and give them a voice. As stated in Rule 8:6 of the Rules....

01/26/2024

I am thrilled to have received certification as a Child Welfare Law Specialist and grateful for the peer/judicial support through this process. Unfortunately, in Virginia attorneys in this field are grossly undervalued. Although this credential doesn't "get" me anything, what it represents to me is that my clients have value and deserve an attorney who has sought out the training and expertise to do the job with excellence.

09/26/2023

How a child views the permanency process will likely be very different from how a professional views it. Read this bulletin to better understand the feelings children may experience regarding permanency and find strategies to prepare them for it. https://buff.ly/2IsuS9a

05/16/2023

05/16/2023

I am honored to once again be selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers. I will continue to work tirelessly on behalf of children and hope that one day the Commonwealth will see value in the work of representation for children.

01/19/2023

The General Assembly hasn't changed what court-appointed lawyers are paid in 23 years.

01/18/2023

The General Assembly is finally looking at the problems with the quality of representation for parents and children in the foster care system. I was honored to be included in a state wide working group that focused on this issue and proposed changes to be brought to the General Assembly.

With caps of $120 per hearing (including termination of parental rights trials that can be multiple days), there is no incentive for court appointed lawyers to actually be lawyers. At this point in my career, I do entire trials for what most attorneys charge for a half hour phone call.

The state of guardians ad litem for children is not much better. There is a dwindling number of attorneys who are doing the work and so for those of us who do the work, the phone never stops ringing. Many GALs end up taking on too many cases and poorly servicing children. The state pay rate for GALs hasn't changed since 1996.

Raising awareness at this time is important since there is some traction in the General Assembly. If you care about the quality of representation for children as well as parent representation in foster care cases, please contact your state delegate.

The General Assembly hasn't changed what court-appointed lawyers are paid in 23 years.