Supervising Attorney Jennifer McGowan is celebrating her 20th anniversary with Youth, Rights & Justice this year. In this interview, Jennifer reflects on her work as a juvenile public defender, and the issues that are still faced by system-impacted children and families.
How many years have you worked in public defense? What first led you to this work? Why did you choose juvenile defense?
I have been at YRJ as an attorney for over 20 years, but with the organization for 22 years if you count my time as a law clerk. I was a teacher prior to law school and found a passion for working with children, teens in particular, who had challenging life circumstances. I began to see individual advocacy on behalf of young people as a better match for my skills than teaching in a large classroom setting.
When I started law school, my hope was to do the work we do at YRJ. But at the time, I didn’t really even know this work existed. It was not until I came to what was then called the Juvenile Rights Project (now Youth, Rights & Justice) as a law clerk, that I saw the opportunity to practice law in a way that perfectly aligned with my passion for advocating for children and families. The delinquency and dependency work, partnered with educational advocacy, was the ideal combination for my legal interests and skills.
And all of these years later, I am still just as passionate about it.
When you first started this work, what was most compelling to you about public defense?
The humanity of our clients and the opportunity to build relationships and advocate on their behalf against systems that often did not fully see them. At times, we represent clients who are accused of very serious acts, but nobody should be defined by only their worst moment. The ability to get to know people holistically and the opportunity to tell an individual’s story is a privilege and more compelling than anything I anticipated when I started my law career.
How have things changed during your career?
A huge shift I have seen during my practice is our overall understanding of juvenile brain development. There are the ways science has informed our work as attorneys on behalf of young people and also policy and legal changes in the way juveniles are treated. We now know the brain isn’t fully developed until our mid-20’s, and that this lack of development in our teenage years helps explain juvenile behavior and decision-making in a different way. This shift has allowed us to better understand young people’s capacity for change and helped us push back on interventions that impose lifelong consequences for teenage behavior and decisions.
Another substantial change is the conversation we are now having about public defenders and how we take care of ourselves. How do we ensure not only that we recruit smart and dedicated people for this work, but that we also retain them? For so long, we have put the needs of our clients and the work ahead of ourselves, because we are passionate about the work. But the cost can be too high and if we burn out, where does that leave our clients? My role as a supervising attorney gives me an opportunity to continue to advance this conversation and do what I can to support YRJ’s attorneys to find a balance, one that will enable them to recharge so they can show up for the work and our clients in a way that doesn’t come at too high a personal cost.
Do you see outcomes improving for our clients? What is the biggest challenge facing our clients?
Overall, I do see progress. YRJ is incredible because we make progress by pushing back against oppressive systems by zealously advocating for our individual clients, and we also make a difference through systems change in our legislative and policy work. All of it is connected. We learn through our individual client-facing work what isn’t working, and we set about changing it on a larger scale. An example of this is our SchoolWorks program: individual attorneys were seeing the impact on their clients of schools that weren’t serving them well. The lawyers knew these clients were spending most of their time at school yet were not receiving the services and support they deserved. So, YRJ decided to do something about it. We created a program that offered an education attorney for any client who needed one.
These opportunities to intervene on a system level, whether it’s through legislative change or program work, help push back on systems in a powerful way and YRJ has done a wonderful job of supporting the growth of new programs designed to do just that. We now have the Family Defense Project (FDP) that is working to keep families safe and together and children out of the foster care system and our PASS (Parent Advocacy for Student Success) program, that is seeking to intervene earlier to prevent students from being pushed out of school and into the juvenile justice system.
What inspires you? What motivates you?
First and foremost, the clients. The individual representation: the ability to help amplify our clients’ voices and help them push back against oppressive systems. And to give them an opportunity that may not have been available if they didn’t have an attorney fighting for them.
Also, the opportunity to work in an office where people are so passionate about the work, so supportive and encouraging of each other in this work, and so creative about how we can continue to advance the work. I do not think I would still be doing this had I been doing it alone. The support of my YRJ family has been instrumental in keeping me going.
What advice would you give to a new lawyer, just starting out? Or someone who is considering public defense as a career?
I would encourage them to deeply consider practice as a juvenile attorney. I could not imagine a more rewarding and stimulating career. It is an area of law where even after all of these years, I continue to be challenged and motivated in new and surprising ways as I seek to push systems to better serve our clients.
I would also encourage them to set healthy boundaries; practicing at a high level for the long term is the goal. Really think about how you create opportunities to unwind and take breaks. To be able to show up and do this work takes a lot of skill, time, attention, and focus so you need to take care of yourself.
Ultimately, I can’t imagine a more rewarding career and feel lucky to have landed at YRJ all those years ago.