Babb named director of new Certificate in Family Law program

Professor Barbara Babb

Professor Barbara Babb has been named director of the nation’s first Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law, UB School of Law Dean Ronald Weich announced Thursday.

The new program, which begins in the fall, is designed to meet a critical need for an enhanced, in-depth family law curriculum.

Babb, director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts, or CFCC, joined the UB law faculty in 1989. In her scholarship, Babb advocates an interdisciplinary approach to family law — using therapeutic jurisprudence and employing an ecological/holistic perspective — as well as the creation of unified family courts. She has served in numerous roles to develop unified family courts in Maryland and across the country.

Babb has published and spoken extensively on family law issues. In 2016, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts named Babb editor in chief of the Family Court Review, on whose editorial board she has served since 1999.

The Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law was developed to address a growing demand for a family law curriculum that offers a holistic blend of theory and practice, as described in a recent Family Court Review article by Babb. The CFCC assembled a practitioners’ advisory work group made up of UB law professors, CFCC staff, judges, attorneys and others who are experts in the field of family law. The work group first examined the feasibility of the program and then collaborated with UB law faculty to design the curriculum.

The certificate program is intended both for new attorneys beginning to practice family law and for attorneys seeking to add family law expertise to their practice.

Students can complete the 16-credit program over 12 months or at their own pace. Faculty include UB law professors, attorneys and judges, all of whom bring decades of real-world insight and experience to the classroom.

Click here for more information about the Post-J.D. Certificate in Family Law or to apply online.

Learn about the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts.