Dawn Post

Dawn J. Post is the Co-Borough Director of the Brooklyn, New York office of the Children's Law Center (CLC), a non-profit law firm providing representation to over 10,000 children per year in the busiest Family Court system in the United States in guardianship, custody, visitation, orders of protection and related child protective cases.  Prior to her current position, she was an Assistant Attorney-in-Charge of the Legal Aid Society's Juvenile Right's Practice in the Brooklyn office, providing representation to children in child protective and delinquency cases. Dawn is an expert in children’s rights, advocacy and litigation, and the central theme of her work is that children and adolescents are entitled to have a voice and representation in legal proceedings that have a significant impact on their lives.  

To that end, she promotes cultural competence to address the underlying issues of poverty and social exclusion based upon race and socio-economic status in the legal and foster care systems in the United States.  Dawn provides various trainings on family law matters in New York City focusing on trial skills, the role of the attorney for the child, custody and visitation, and child protection.  Nationally, she has led panels and discussions about providing voice to children in high conflict custody and visitation cases and addressing broken adoptions.  Internationally, she has lectured on the role and responsibilities of the attorney for the child.

Dawn works to find new and innovative ways to improve the lives of the children in the legal system and is effective at reflecting upon and examining the issues and policies which impact children and families from various angles and from a global perspective.  

She recently oversaw a case study examining broken adoptions in custody and visitation cases and these results have been included in an article co-authored for the Capital University Law Review entitled The Revolving Doors of Family Court: Confronting Broken Adoptions.  Dawn sits on various committees including the NYC Family Court Advisory Council for Child Protection as well as TPRs and Adoptions.