Jennifer R. Morris, Esq., has spent her entire fifteen-year legal career at The Children’s Law Center (“CLC”). Starting as a staff attorney in 2005, she primarily represented the best interest of children as a Guardian ad litem (“GAL”) in abuse and neglect cases. As a GAL, Ms. Morris provided client­centered, culturally humble, holistic, and trauma informed representation to connect clients to educational and therapeutic services, ensure safety, and promote stable permanency. Ms. Morris also represented adoption petitioners, custody complainants, and guardianship movants as a state interest attorney as well as serving as a custody GAL (C-GAL) in domestic relations matters.

During her time at CLC, Jennifer was promoted internally to Supervisor, Senior Supervisor, and Deputy Director, and she has served as the Director of the GAL program since 2016. The GAL program employs 40-50 staff attorneys, investigators, social workers, and education attorneys, and it handles 400-500 abuse and neglect cases in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia each year. She also serves on the Leadership Team at CLC, assisting the Executive Director with the oversight of the organization. In addition to her casework, in her management roles, Ms. Morris has hired, trained, and supervised numerous attorneys.  She has also helped to shape training and practice in the Family Court of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by coordinating training, mentoring, and resources to provide to the Counsel for Child Abuse and Neglect (“CCAN”) panel through CLC.

Ms. Morris received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and sociology from the University of Pennsylvania and her Juris Doctor degree from the Howard University School of Law.