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 has devoted her career to working
with children and families and has extensive experience in clinical
legal education. Professor Mandelbaum 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, she was an associate
clinical professor at the University of California, Hastings College of
the Law, where she taught in the Civil Justice Clinic, Hastings's
clinical program.
As founding director of the Rutgers Child Advocacy Clinic,
Professor Mandelbaum designed and developed the interdisciplinary and
collaborative clinical program, which is aimed at comprehensively
addressing the needs of low-income children and their families. She has
written extensively about the legal representation of children, the
legal and financial needs of kinship caregivers, and public policies
concerning welfare.
