Professor Jennifer Baum, Assistant Professor of Clinical Legal Education and Director of the Child Advocacy Clinic, together with co-counsel Greg Jacob, Karen Koniuszy, and Courtney Wen, of O’Melveny & Myers, all working pro bono, defeated a Hague Convention petition for repatriation of a fifteen year-old girl from Hungary. The Honorable Paul A. Engelmayer (S.D.N.Y.) ruled Friday, July 26, 2013, that the child, D.T.J., had succeeded in proving all three affirmative defenses: (1) that she is now settled in the United States, (2) that she is sufficiently mature to object to repatriation, and (3) that repatriation would place her in grave risk of harm. The grave risk defense rested chiefly on a history of domestic violence, together with eighteen months’ worth of recent abusive and anti-Semitic Facebook posts which taunted the girl and threatened her mother’s life, prompting the Court to observe that the child is now “fragile,” and that “compel[ing] return to Hungary, and to proximity with her abusive and volatile father, would be deeply traumatic” for her. The decision is available here: Jakubik Decision 072613 (2). Learn more about the development of this case and the compelling work of the Child Advocacy Clinic here and here. Congratulations Jen and team!
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