DEPENDENCY/DCF CASES/ATTORNEY AD LITEM

Adriane M. Isenberg worked exclusively for the Guardian ad Litem Program, a state agency representing children's best interests in DCF legal cases for the first several years of her practice. She has regularly been representing parents in abuse and neglect cases ever since. She is often court-appointed to represent these clients if they are unable to pay an attorney. Nevertheless, not all parents are entitled to court-appointed counsel, in particular those whose incomes are too high to qualify for a free attorney.

Ms. Isenberg has represented parties on all sides in dependency court proceedings and has advocated for children as both a Guardian ad Litem and Attorney ad Litem since 1994. She has helped parents overcome the obstacles to achieve reunification with their children. She has litigated termination of parental rights cases and successfully protected her clients' rights to have their children returned to them.

Ms. Isenberg also represents care-givers who wish to gain participant status in these dependency proceedings as well as the prospective adoptive parents who ultimately adopt children in need of permanency. Ms. Isenberg also represents needy teenagers whose parents cannot provide a home for them and who are not able to be adopted through the state DCF system.