Clinical Associate Professor and CEASE Clinic Director Emma Hetherington was interviewed for The Children’s Law Podcast, explaining why she thinks a huge barrier to effectively serving survivors of child sex trafficking is that stakeholders don’t fully understand what trafficking is. Hetherington discusses how children’s circumstances and behaviors need to be examined differently when exploitation and…
CEASE Clinic Director and Legal Intern Publish “Trauma-Informed Legal Representation for Youth in Sexual-Abuse-to-Prison Pipeline”
CEASE Clinic Director Emma Hetherington and Legal Intern Copelenn McMahon (’23) published “Trauma-Informed Legal Representation for Youth in Sexual-Abuse-to-Prison Pipeline” along with School of Social Work Assistant Professor Allison Dunnigan in the American Bar Association’s Committee on Children’s Rights Litigation Newsletter. The article discusses how legal systems and stakeholders often criminalize behavioral trauma responses of…
CEASE Clinic Secures $1.1 Million Verdict for Client
Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation Clinic Staff Attorney Brian Atkinson and second year student Jessica L. Davis secured a $1.1 million verdict for their client after a three-day trial in Rockdale County, Georgia. The court found that the defendant, who was the clinic’s client’s stepfather, committed acts of child molestation to, with and in the presence…
Atkinson & Hetherington Publish Chapter on Child Trafficking in NACC’s Newest Edition of the Red Book
CEASE Clinic Staff Attorney Brian Atkinson and Director Emma Hetherington’s chapter “Child Trafficking” was recently published in the newest edition of Child Welfare Law and Practice: Representing Children, Parents, and Agencies in Neglect, Abuse, and Dependency Cases, commonly referred to as the “Red Book”. “Designed initially as a study guide for attorneys preparing to take…
Brian Atkinson Testifies Before Georgia House Subcommittee
CEASE Clinic Staff Attorney and Lead Litigator Brian Atkinson testified before the Georgia General Assembly House Judiciary Non-Civil Subcommittee on March 21, 2023 about the possible detrimental effects of Senate Bill 36 on child survivors of sexual exploitation and trafficking. SB 36 would change the pimping and pandering offenses from a misdemeanor to a felony…
CEASE Student Publishes on Affirmative Defenses for Sex Trafficking Victims
Third-Year law and CEASE student Copelenn McMahon (’23) recently published a blog post for the Georgia Law Review Online titled The Need for an Affirmative Defense for Victims of Sex Trafficking in Georgia. McMahon writes, “An affirmative defense of trafficking victimization would allow survivors charged with crimes to establish the interrelationship between the criminal conduct…
CEASE Releases Policy Brief on Decriminalizing Victims of Child Sex Trafficking
CEASE recently released its policy brief, Child Sex Trafficking and Enhancing Georgia Responses, providing an overview of how common misunderstandings about the realities of child sex trafficking prevent the identification of victims, resulting in survivors being treated more like adult criminals than child victims. Despite Georgia’s commitment to the protection of survivors of child sex trafficking, victims…
Webinar on CSEC, Bias, and Litigating Race
As National Human Trafficking Prevention Month comes to a close, we’d like to highlight CEASE’s webinar from October 2020 on CSEC, Bias, and Litigating Race featuring Shomari Ward and Cait Mullen from the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York and Georgia Law and CEASE alum Victoria Hicks (’21) discussing how…
CEASE Welcomes New Interdisciplinary Staff
The CEASE Clinic welcomed new interdisciplinary staff in 2022. Thanks to a grant funded through CJCC, Jocelyn Crumpton joined CEASE as the clinic’s Social Work Advocate, providing social work case management, intern supervision, and systemic policy advocacy and community outreach. The addition of the social work advocate position enhances CEASE’s ability to provide quality legal…
Atkinson and Hetherington Present at the 2022 Summit
CEASE Staff Attorney Brian Atkinson presented on “Trauma-Informed Representation for Crossover Youth” at The Summit 2022: Georgia’s Child Welfare Conference in December. Director Emma Hetherington presented “Exploring Careers in Child Protection Law” alongside Diana Rugh Johnson, Court Improvement Program Director at the Administrative Office of the Courts; Jerry Bruce, Director at the Office of the Child…