Randi Mandelbaum

Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, Annamay Sheppard Scholar, and Director of the Child Advocacy Clinic, Rutgers Law School. Professor Mandelbaum earned a B.S. from Brandeis University, a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law, and an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. She has devoted her career to working with children and families and has extensive experience in clinical legal education.

Professor Mandelbaum began her legal career as a staff attorney at the Child Advocacy Unit of the Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore. She then went to the Georgetown University Law Center where, with another professor, she created a clinical program addressing the legal needs of families living in poverty. Prior to coming to Rutgers, she was an associate clinical professor at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she taught in the Civil Justice Clinic, Hastings’ clinical program.

As founding director of the Rutgers Child Advocacy Clinic (CAC) in 2000, Professor Mandelbaum designed and developed a unique clinical program, aimed at comprehensively addressing the needs of low-income children and their families. The CAC provides representation to abused and neglected children, undocumented immigrant children, and low-income children with disabilities. Professor Mandelbaum created the Aging Out Project, a statewide community education effort that informs older youth transitioning out of foster care about their rights and entitlements. In the area of immigration, Professor Mandelbaum co-founded the New Jersey Consortium for Immigrant Children and co-leads a project that provides representation to children in New Jersey’s foster care system who are in need of an immigration attorney. Professor Mandelbaum’s scholarship focuses on the legal representation of children, the rights of siblings to maintain their relationships, issues concerning undocumented immigrant children and child welfare law and policy, and the intersection of family and immigration law.