My Community Cares

Emily Aucoin, J.D. ’20, joins the Law Clinic as a staff attorney under a My Community Cares grant funded by the Louisiana Bar Foundation. This grant will allow the Clinic to provide civil legal services directly to youth and families who are involved in the child welfare system or at risk of entering foster care. Emily will be working primarily with the Law Clinic's Children’s Rights, Family Law, and Youth Justice sections, all of which are accepting referrals through this program. Emily brings three years of experience as a child's attorney representing children in foster care. As a law student, she was a student practitioner with the Children's Rights section, and interned at several local civil legal aid organizations through the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center as a student and the Graduates for Justice program.

In Spring 2024, Emily and the students in the Children's Rights Clinic filed several non-parent sole custody petitions for individuals seeking custody of children who would otherwise be homeless or in custody of DCFS. With Emily's support, the section was able to accept 6 non-parent custody cases and an intra-family adoption case. In addition, the section celebrated a big win for a father and son. The father had acknowledged and filiated with his son through a DCFS case back in 2016, which led to an award of legal custody. Following the DCFS and court case closures, the father went for several years unsuccessfully trying to obtain a birth certificate and social security number for his child, who was not named at birth and did not have a father listed on the certificate. With the assistance of the Loyola Law Clinic and Emily Aucoin, the father was able to appear back in juvenile court and amend prior orders necessary for his request to Vital Records. In addition, Emily and the Student Practitioner on the case coordinated with the Vital Record and Social Security offices to complete the process. As a result, the child was given a legal name and the father was finally added to his son’s birth certificate. With these necessary documents, he is now able to access public benefits on behalf of his son.