Investing in Family Legal Representation to Improve Outcomes with Gwen Clegg

In this episode, Elliott and Tecoria talk to Gwendolyn Clegg, Esq., about Oklahoma’s new statewide Office of Family Representation, where Gwen serves as the Executive Director. This office is so new, in fact, that it hadn’t even launched yet when this episode was recorded. Gwen is a parent defense attorney who has been working tirelessly to improve the quality of family representation in Oklahoma for the past 15 years. This conversation reveals how across the country, families experiencing a child welfare case suffer from poorly funded, overworked, and ill-equipped (albeit well-intentioned) attorneys, which can lead to negative, and sometimes dire consequences.

Listeners will follow Gwen through her journey of turning a vision of high-quality family representation in Oklahoma into a legislative-passed and funded reality. They will hear some of the data from other states that support favorable outcomes from this type of program, one that many states have yet to implement.