Advanced CLE Program: 2026 Institute for Family Law Associates
Meet the 2026 Faculty & Mentors! >>
*Please note all times are in Central Time. Schedule is subject to change.
Thursday, September 24
6:00 – 8:00 p.m. | Dine Arounds
Friday, September 25
Noon – 5:00 p.m. | Registration
1:00 – 1:15 p.m. | Welcome & Introductions
1:15 – 2:00 p.m. | Dealing With Your Client’s Mental – What Do You Need To Know to Effectively Represent a Client in Custody Litigation?
Rob McAngus, Partner, Mueller Family Law Group (TX)
By the end of this session, participants will understand how mental health conditions and DSM diagnosis can impact custody litigation including an understanding of the relevance of DSM diagnoses in custody litigation by distinguishing between the existence of a mental health diagnosis and the diagnosis’s actual impact on parenting capacity, child safety, and the best-interest analysis.
2:00 – 2:45 p.m. | How To Prepare Your Client for a Custody Case
Michael I. Flores, Esq., Founder, Michael I. Flores, PC (MA)
2:45 – 3:15 p.m. | Drafting Bulletproof Parenting Plans
Kevin J. Rubin, Founding Partner, Rubin Family Law LLC (GA)
By the end of the session participants will understand the importance of identifying the essential components of a comprehensive parenting plan, analyzing common drafting pitfalls that lead to post-judgment litigation, drafting clear and effective decision-making, communication, and parenting-time provisions, and assessing the enforceability of language in parenting plan agreements.
3:30 – 4:30 p.m. | Special Needs Children: Crafting Parenting Plans with Medical/Educational Complexity
Renee Ross, Founder and Attorney, Ross Family Law (CA)
By the end of this session participants will be able to identify the unique legal and practical considerations involved in developing parenting plans for children with significant medical, developmental, educational, and behavioral needs, analyze how a child’s diagnoses, functional limitations, and treatment requirements may affect parenting schedules, transportation arrangements, transitions between households, and parental responsibilities and understand the importance of integrating special education law, disability-related accommodations, and family law principles when advocating for parenting arrangements that serve the best interests of children with complex needs.
4:30 – 5:15 p.m. | Resist-Refuse v. Parental Alienation v. Estrangement
Laura Davis Smith, Partner, Davis Smith & Jean, LLC (FL)
By the end of this session participants will be able to differentiate among child resistance, parental alienation, realistic estrangement, and other causes of parent-child contact refusal and assess its application in family law cases. This session will also examine the legal controversies surrounding the concept of parental alienation and assess the implications for admissibility and expert testimony. Participants will also be able to develop effective litigation strategies for presenting and challenging evidence relating to a child’s stated preferences, resistance to contact, and allegations of parental influence.
5:15 – 5:30 p.m. | Mentor Group Debrief
5:30 – 6:00 p.m. | End of Day Toast, sponsored by Stout
6:00 – 8:00 p.m. | Mentor Dinners
Saturday, September 26
8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Registration
8:00 – 8:45 a.m. | Breakfast
8:55 – 9:00 a.m. | Welcome & Introductions
9:00 – 9:45 a.m. | Interstate Jurisdiction Battles Under UCCJEA and UIFSA
Kevin J. Rubin, Founding Partner, Rubin Family Law LLC (GA)
By the end of this session participants will be able to identify the jurisdictional framework of the UCCJEA and UIFSA and distinguish the differing jurisdictional requirements governing child custody and child support proceedings, determine which state possesses initial, exclusive, continuing, emergency, and modification jurisdiction in complex interstate custody and support disputes, and understand the requirements for communication, evidentiary hearings, and interstate coordination procedures when courts in multiple states are involved in the same family dispute.
9:45 – 10:30 a.m. | Should “Best Interests” Be Replaced? Critiques and Alternatives/Presumptions as to Joint Custody
Daniel L. Gray, Founding Partner, Cooper Ginsberg Gray, PLLC (VA)
By the end of this session participants will understand the legal and practical implications of rebuttable presumptions favoring joint custody and/or shared parenting time vs. the best interest’s standard, how allegations of domestic violence, coercive control, substance abuse, mental illness, child abuse, and high-conflict parenting affect the application of custody presumptions and effective litigation strategies for advocating for or opposing joint custody presumptions in contested custody proceedings.
10:30 – 11:00 a.m. | Parenting Plans and Relocation Cases in a Remote Work Era
Lauren Melhart, Associate Judge 360th District Court (TX)
By the end of this session participants will learn how remote and hybrid work arrangements are reshaping traditional assumptions about geography, parenting time, relocation, and the best-interest analysis, compare different ways states analyze relocation requests, and how remote work expands parental flexibility while simultaneously creating new challenges for parenting schedules and co-parenting relationships.
11:15 a.m. – Noon | Military Families and Deployment-Related Custody Issues
Todd A. Stahly, Stahly Miner LLC (CO)
By the end of this session participants will understand specific issues and law that relate to military personnel and those deployed specifically, jurisdictional, practical, and statutory challenges presented by military service, deployments, relocations, and reintegration. Participants will also learn about federal and state laws governing military custody disputes, including protections afforded to servicemembers during deployment and temporary duty assignments.
Noon – 12:30 p.m. | Parenting Coordination: Effectiveness and Legal Limits
Janet A. Battey, Partner, Ferro, Battey & Eucalitto, LLC (CT)
In this session participants will learn about the role of parenting coordination in high-conflict family cases, including distinguishing between the functions of parenting coordinators, guardians ad litem, custody evaluators, therapists, mediators, and co-parenting counselors. Participants will also understand the legal authority applicable to parenting coordinators included the limits of delegating decision-making in different jurisdictions. This session will also discuss parenting coordination orders and settlement provisions that clearly define the scope of authority, decision-making powers, dispute-resolution procedures, and review mechanisms.
12:30 p.m. | Group Photo
12:40 – 1:00 p.m. | Mentor Group Debrief
6:00 – 8:00 p.m. | Reception
Sunday, September 27
8:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Registration
8:00 – 8:45 a.m. | Breakfast
8:55 – 9:00 a.m. | Welcome and Introductions
9:00 – 10:45 a.m. | Analysis of a Custody Evaluation
Janet A. Battey, Partner, Ferro, Battey & Eucalitto, LLC (CT)
Adam John Wolff, Partner, Alter Wolff Foley & Stutman LLP (NY)
By the end of this session, participants will be able to analyze the key components of a comprehensive custody evaluation, including interviews, collateral contacts, psychological testing and parent-child observations. This session will also explore how custody evaluations are used in litigation, identify areas that may be vulnerable to challenge on cross-examination and develop strategies for effectively presenting or contesting evaluation findings in court while maintaining a focus on the child’s best interests.
11:00 – 11:30 a.m. | Daubert/Frye Challenges to Psychological Testimony
Adam John Wolff, Partner, Alter Wolff Foley & Stutman LLP (NY)
By the end of this session participants will understand the admissibility standards governing expert psychological testimony under the Daubert and Frye frameworks and identify the key differences between the two approaches. Participants will learn about effective strategies for challenging or defending the admissibility of psychological expert testimony through pretrial motions, evidentiary hearings, and cross-examination.
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. | Cross-Examination of Mental Health Experts
Daniel L. Gray, Founding Partner, Cooper Ginsberg Gray, PLLC (VA)
During this session participants will learn how to develop effective cross-examination strategies for psychologists, psychiatrists, custody evaluators, parenting coordinators, and other mental health professionals involved in family law proceedings. This session will include discussion about identifying weaknesses that may undermine the reliability of expert opinions and cross-examination techniques.
12:15 – 12:45 p.m. | Coercive Control and Domestic Violence in a Custody Matter
Sandra A. Brooks, Principal, Offit Kurman (MD)
By the end of this session participants be able to identify coercive control, distinguish it from ordinary parental conflict, understand its impact on children, and understand ideas to effectively litigate these issues in custody proceedings. Participants will learn about the impact of coercive control and domestic violence on parenting capacity, child development, attachment, decision-making, and the best-interest-of-the-child analysis as well the role of trauma, trauma responses, and victim-survival behaviors in custody litigation and recognize how these factors may affect witness credibility and parental functioning. This session will also include developing litigation strategies for presenting and challenging allegations of coercive control, domestic violence, and child exposure to family violence in contested custody proceedings.
12:45 – 1:45 p.m. | Lunch
1:45 – 2:30 p.m. | Attachment Theory in Custody Determination
Laura Davis Smith, Partner, Davis Smith & Jean, LLC (FL)
By the end of this session participants will understand the fundamental principles of attachment theory and their relevance to custody determinations and parenting-time decisions including the scientific and legal controversies surrounding the use of attachment theory in custody evaluations and judicial decision-making and the intersection of attachment theory with shared-parenting models, relocation disputes, reunification therapy, and cases involving allegations of abuse, neglect, or coercive control.
2:30 – 3:15 p.m. | Strategic Use of Custody Evaluations, Mental Health Providers and Kids’ Representatives
Kathryn Homburger Mickelson, Equity Partner, Beermann, LLP (IL)
In this session participants will learn about the effective selection, use, and examination of the various professionals who influence custody outcomes, while recognizing their differing roles, limitations, and ethical obligations. This session will cover strategic approaches for determining when the appointment or retention of a mental health professional or child representative will advance a client’s litigation objectives, the distinction between forensic and treatment-based opinions, the strategic advantages and disadvantages of seeking a custody evaluation versus relying on existing mental health professionals and collateral sources, ethical issues that arise when professionals serve multiple functions within a family law matter, including role confusion, dual relationships, confidentiality concerns, and conflicts of interest and strategies for communicating with, providing information to, and managing interactions with custody evaluators, mental health professionals, and child representatives throughout the litigation process.
3:30 – 4:15 p.m. | Substance Abuse and Testing in Custody Cases
Kristi Reardon, Partner, Reardon House Colton PLC (AZ)
By the end on this session participants will understand the impact of substance abuse and substance use disorders on parenting capacity, child safety, and the best-interest-of-the-child determination; the strengths, limitations, and evidentiary value of common drug and alcohol testing methodologies, including urine, hair follicle, nail, blood, breathalyzer, and continuous alcohol monitoring technologies; strategies for drafting effective testing protocols; and litigation strategies for obtaining, challenging, and presenting substance abuse evidence in custody proceedings. This session will also cover emerging legal issues involving cannabis legalization, prescribed controlled substances, medication-assisted treatment, and evolving societal attitudes toward substance use in custody litigation.
4:15 – 5:00 p.m. | Parentage and Third-Party Custody Cases
Todd A. Stahly, Stahly Miner LLC (CO)
By the end of this session participants will understand the evolving legal landscape of parentage, constitutional protections afforded to parents, and the complex issues that arise when non-parents seek custodial rights including the constitutional, statutory, and common-law principles governing parentage determinations and third-party custody claims, parentage issues arising from assisted reproductive technology, surrogacy arrangements, same-sex parenting, donor conception, and evolving family structures, and emerging trends in de facto parentage, psychological parent doctrines, and functional-parent theories, and assess their implications for future custody litigation. Participants will also learn about litigation strategies for establishing or challenging parentage, standing, and custodial claims involving grandparents, stepparents, relatives, and other third parties.
5:00 – 5:15 p.m. | Mentor Group Debrief
6:00 – 8:00 p.m. | Dine Arounds
Monday, September 28
7:30 – 8:15 a.m. | Breakfast
8:25 – 8:30 a.m. | Welcome & Introductions
8:30 – 9:15 a.m. | International Issues – Hague Convention Cases
Kathryn Homburger Mickelson, Equity Partner, Beermann, LLP (IL)
By the end of this session, participants will understand the purpose, structure, and legal framework of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and its relationship to domestic custody proceedings. They will also understand the evidentiary and legal standards applicable to establishing a prima facie Hague Convention claim and defending against a petition for return, the major defenses to return under the Hague Convention, including grave risk of harm, consent, acquiescence, mature child objections, and human rights considerations, recent developments in the determination of habitual residence and their impact on international child abduction litigation and strategies to prevent courts from conflating return issues with best-interest analyses. This session will also cover litigation strategies for obtaining emergency relief, securing the return of children, preserving evidence, and coordinating with foreign counsel and governmental authorities.
9:15 – 10:00 a.m. | Evidentiary Issues in Custody Litigation – Hearsay, Social Media, AI, Surveillance and Digital Evidence
Rob McAngus, Partner, Mueller Family Law Group (TX)
By the end of this session participants will understand the increasingly complex evidentiary challenges presented by modern technology, electronic communications, and emerging forms of digital proof in custody disputes including the admissibility of electronic and digital evidence in custody proceedings and apply foundational requirements for authentication, relevance, reliability, and evidentiary weight; strategies for authenticating social media content, screenshots, metadata, electronic communications, and cloud-based records while anticipating challenges based on authorship, alteration, and reliability; implications of surveillance evidence, including video recordings, GPS tracking, wearable-device data, location services, and other forms of electronic monitoring; the admissibility, reliability, and ethical concerns associated with artificial intelligence-generated content, deepfakes, manipulated images, synthetic audio, and AI-assisted evidence; and privacy concerns, consent requirements, recording laws, and ethical obligations that arise when gathering, preserving, and presenting electronic evidence in family law matters.
10:00 – 10:30 a.m. | Narrative Building in Custody Trials
Lauren Melhart, Associate Judge 360th District Court (TX)
By the end of this session participants will learn how to develop a cohesive and persuasive case narrative that integrates the facts, evidence, witnesses, and legal standards governing custody determinations by transforming complex facts into a persuasive, child-centered theory of the case while maintaining credibility and aligning the narrative with the applicable best-interest factors. Participants will learn about organizing evidence, witness testimony, expert opinions, and documentary exhibits into a compelling theory of the case including developing opening statements, direct examinations, cross-examinations, and closing arguments that advance the central themes of the case while also identifying vulnerabilities in the client’s case and strategies for dealing with them.
10:30 – 11:00 a.m. | Building a Good Reputation
Thomas Sasser, Managing Partner, Sasser, Cestero & Roy, P.A. (FL)
By the end of this session, participants will be able to recognize and implement various strategies to build a solid professional reputation, including the effective use of social media, networking within and outside of their local legal community, and maintaining appropriate conduct both in and out of the courtroom.