| Darlene Bewley has joined SLLS as the managing attorney of SLLS' new Children's Legal Services project. This new project will focus initially on representation of foster children in Child in Need of Care (CINC) proceedings in several of our service area's juvenile courts.
Darlene is a 1987 graduate of Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. She has roughly 20 years of experience representing children, has handled or supervised about 700 CINC cases, and trained half of the juvenile court judges in Louisiana on CINC procedures. Darlene has also served as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at LSU Medical Center. She has made more than 30 law-related professional presentations, mostly in the area of children's legal issues.
In thte past Darlene worked as a staff attorney for NOLAC, including two years in the Housing Unit and five years in the Family/Juvenile Unit. She was also the supervising attorney of the Pro Bono Project's Children's Legal Services Project and CINC program for several years--supervising staff and volunteer attorneys in CINC cases. Darlene is a certified divorce and custody mediator.
Darlene is the recipient of several public interest law awards for her legal work: the State Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico Award (2005), the Pro Bono Project's Distinguished Service Award (2004), and the Gillis Long Public Service Award (1992).
Darlene has dedicated virtually her entire legal career to full-time representation of neglected children. She is well known throughout the state for her child advocacy. | 
Southeast Louisiana Legal Services
