Randi Mandelbaum is a clinical professor of law,
the Annamay Sheppard Scholar, and the director of the Child Advocacy
Clinic. She has devoted her career to working
with children and families and has extensive experience in clinical
legal education. Professor Mandelbaum earned a B.S. from Brandeis University, a J.D.
from American University, Washington College of Law, and an LL.M. from
Georgetown University Law Center. She began her legal career as a staff
attorney at the Child Advocacy Unit of the Legal Aid Bureau in
Baltimore, representing children in matters involving child abuse and
neglect, termination of parental rights, custody, visitation, public
benefits, special education, and foster care placement. She then went to
the Georgetown University Law Center where, with another professor, she
created a clinical program addressing the legal needs of families
living in poverty. Prior to coming to Rutgers, Professor Mandelbaum was an associate
clinical professor at the University of California, Hastings College of
the Law, where she taught in the Civil Justice Clinic, Hastings'
clinical program.
As founding director of the Rutgers Child Advocacy Clinic (CAC),
Professor Mandelbaum designed and developed this unique clinical
program, which is aimed at comprehensively addressing the needs of
low-income children and their families. The CAC provides representation
to foster children, undocumented immigrant children, and low-income
children with disabilities. The CAC also sponsors a statewide community
education project (the "Aging Out Project") aimed at educating older
foster youth about their rights and entitlements. Professor
Mandelbaum's scholarship focuses on the legal representation of
children, the rights of siblings to maintain their relationships, issues
concerning undocumented immigrant children, child welfare law, and
law and policy.
