Faculty

Martin Guggenheim

  • Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law Emeritus
Assistant: Yvette Bisono
  yvette.bisono@nyu.edu       212.998.6177
Martin Guggenheim

AREAS OF RESEARCH

Child Welfare, Children's Rights, Family Law, Juvenile Delinquency, Parental Rights

One of the nation’s foremost experts on children’s rights and family law, Martin Guggenheim ’71 has taught at NYU School of Law, where he now co-directs the Family Defense Clinic, since 1973. From 1998 to 2002, he was director of Clinical and Advocacy Programs. Guggenheim has been an active litigator in the area of children and the law and has argued leading cases on juvenile delinquency and termination of parental rights in the US Supreme Court. He is also a well-known scholar, having published more than 50 articles and book chapters, plus six books, including What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights (2005). His research has focused on adolescent abortion, First Amendment rights in schools, the role of counsel for children in court proceedings, and empirical research on child welfare practice, juvenile justice, and family law. As a student at NYU Law, he was an Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Scholar. Guggenheim is a Founding Organizer of the National Alliance for Parent Representation, American Bar Association. He also is currently serving as an advisor for the American Law Institute’s Restatement on Children and the Law.


Courses

  • Advanced Family Defense Clinic

    Please see Clinics

  • Child, Parent, and State

    This course will focus on the legal rights, responsibilities and disabilities of parents and children in the American legal system. Particular attention will be given to the interplay and often conflicting interests of children, parents, and the State. We will examine the historical background and development of the juvenile court, recent decisions involving due process rights of juvenile delinquents, the power of the State to intervene involuntarily into the family to protect children believed to be abused or neglected, the problems and issues involved in children in foster care, the rights of students, the rights of adolescents and "mature minors" in clashes with their parents, the right to sex-related medical treatment and the question of informed consent to medical care. Other subjects include adoption, the rights of unwed fathers, and third-party visitation (including grandparent visitation) laws. Special consideration will also be given to the role of counsel when representing children.

  • Criminal Litigation

    The course examines the process of investigating, researching, preparing and presenting the defense of a criminal charge. The focus is on litigation planning,particularly the development of a coherent strategy of defense and theories of the case. Witness interviewing/ examination get considerableattention; some attention is devoted to briefing that requires the integration of factual and legal argumentation. Students work with a single simulated case throughout the course and predominately deal with the case from the defense perspective. Students research applicable law, investigate facts (by planning and conducting a series of investigative interviews), devise an overalldefense strategy (in which a suppression motion is pursued defense), think through the defensive theories of the case at both the suppression motion and the trial, and examine somewitnesses at both proceedings. Students also plan the prosecution's theory of the case at trial; half of them act as prosecutors in the trial simulation.

  • Education Advocacy Clinic

    Please see Clinics

  • Family Defense Clinic

    Please see the All Clinical website for complete information about this course.

VIEW ALL

Publications

VIEW ALL

Education

  • JD, New York University School of Law, 1971
  • BA, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1968

Honors and Activities

  • Fellow, American Bar Foundation, 2007
  • Livingston Hall Award, American Bar Association, 2006
  • Distinguished Visiting Scholar, University of Loyola School of Law, Chicago, 2004
  • Chief of United States Delegation to XII International Congress on Family Law, Havanna, Cuba, 2002
  • Kathryn A. McDonald Award, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 2000
  • Award for Outstanding Contribution to Clinical Legal Education for work in creating the Clinical Law Review, Association of American Law Schools, Section on Clinical Legal Education, 1995

Ideas from NYU Law

Protest sign reading "Black Lives Matter"

A Reckoning in Racial Justice

In the Media

VIEW ALL

© 2024 New York University School of Law. 40 Washington Sq. South, New York, NY 10012.  Tel. 212.998.6100