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TJSL Student to be Published in Family Law Journal

March 11, 2014

Second-year TJSL law student Kimberly Coulter recently accepted an offer to be published in next year’s issue of the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy.

Coulter’s article, “A Shift from Incidental to Instrumental: A Promise of Stability When Stepparents Have Been a Primary Source of Parenting Support” advocates for giving residential stepparents automatic standing and a voice in custody and visitation hearings following a passage of a rigorous parenting test.

“I am deeply proud and humbled by the honor of being published,” said Coulter – the 2013 recipient of the Lawyers Club Women and the Law Project at Thomas Jefferson School of Law Scholarship.

Coulter’s interest in family law is rooted in her previous work as a teacher in inner city schools and as a mother raising three young children. “Since the subject of my Note touches my life very personally, it is truly a labor of love as my husband is a devoted stepfather to our children, yet simultaneously he is a legal stranger to them,” shared Coulter.

“I am grateful for the offer of publication because it means that many others will have the opportunity to read my arguments and consider their merits,” she said.

The Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy publishes one issue each year. Coulter’s paper will be cite checked and peer-reviewed during the 2014-2015 school year and published in the 2015 issue.