Sacha M. Coupet
Morris I. Leibman Professor of Law
Professor Coupet joined the Loyola law faculty in 2004. Her research focuses on the regulation of families, including the privileges, rights and interests of those within the family. Her scholarship on law, policy and practice issues impacting children and families has been published in notable law journals including The Michigan State Law Review, American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law and the New York University Review of Law & Social Change and cited in popular press including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Together with Professor Ellen Marrus (Houston), Professor Coupet is the editor of Children, Sexuality and the Law (NYU Press, 2015), a groundbreaking book that contributes greatly to the dialogue about children’s agency. Professor Coupet is a co-editor of the widely adopted casebook, Children and the Law, 8th Ed. (West Academic, 2024) and the accompanying Nutshell. She presents nationally on issues related to family law, child welfare, children’s rights, LGBTQ youth and diversity & inclusion in law practice
Prior to joining the law school, Professor Coupet received her Ph.D. in Psychology (Clinical) from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she was selected as a James Wilson Fellow and served as an Associate Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Upon graduation, she clerked for both the Honorable Theodore A. McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia and the Honorable Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. (Ret.) of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Immediately prior to joining Loyola’s faculty, Professor Coupet was a Dean's Fellow at the University of Michigan Law School, where she taught for two years in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic. In 2006, Professor Coupet co-founded the AALS Section on Children & the Law. She was named a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Houston Law Center, Center for Children, Law and Policy in 2009 and served in 2011 as Reporter for the American Association of Matrimonial Lawyers, Child Custody Evaluation Standards. She continues to teach in the University of Michigan Law School’s Bergstrom Child Welfare Summer Fellowship Training program.
Education
A.B., Washington University
Ph.D. (Psychology), University of Michigan
J.D., University of Pennsylvania
Courses Taught
Torts
Child, Parent & State
Family Law
Children & the Law
International and Comparative Family Law
Social Science in the Law
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Publications/Research Listings
Selected Publications:
Articles
The Ontological Expansiveness of Parental Rights Rhetoric in K-12 Public Schools, 57 FAM. L.Q. 115 (2024)
Singing in the Key of Dobbs: Historical Inquiries into the Institutionalization of Support for Families and Children, 53 SETON HALL L. REV. 1665 (2023)
Tributes to Family Law Scholars Who Helped Us Find Our Path: Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, 55 FAM. L.Q. 341(2022)
Valuing all Identities Beyond the Schoolhouse Gate: The Case for Inclusivity as a Civic Virtue in K-12, 27 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 1 (2020) *Winner, 2022 Dukeminier Award (recognizing the best published LGBTQ legal scholarship)
What Price Liberty? The Search for Equality for Kinship-Caregiving Families, 2013 Mich. St. L. Rev. 1249 (2013)
The AAML Child Custody Evaluation Standards: Bridging Two Worlds, 25 J. Am. Acad. Matrim. Law. 295 (2013).
Beyond “Eros”: “Agape” Parents and Why Parentage Should Not Depend on Sex, 20(3) Am. U. J. Gender, Soc. Pol’y & L. 611(2011).
“Ain’t I a Parent?”: Exclusion of Kinship Caregivers from Debate over Expansions of Parenthood, 34 NYU Rev. l. & Social Change 595 (2010).
Book Chapters
Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren: Balancing Burdens and Blessings, in Older Women: Current and Future Challenges of Professionals with an Aging Population(Teresa Kilbane and Marcia Spira, eds., Bentham Books, 2016)
Policing Gender on the Playground: Interests, Needs and Rights of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth, in Children, Sexuality and the Law, Ellen Marrus and Sacha M. Coupet (Eds.) NYU Press (2015).
Books
Children, Sexuality and the Law, Ellen Marrus and Sacha M. Coupet (Eds.) NYU Press (2015).
Recent Presentations:
Addressing Risks and Embracing Benefits of Kinship Care, Invited Speaker, Casey Family Programs Judicial Training, Springfield, Missouri (2018, April).
Whose Hearts and Minds? The K-12 Battle over Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Kids, Invited Panelist, Midwest People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Cleveland, Ohio (2018, April).
A Legal Perspective on Gendered Harassment in K-12 Educational Environments, Invited Speaker, Educational Theory Colloquium, Chicago, Illinois (2018, April).
Cultural Competency in the Practice of Child Advocacy in Family Law, Invited Speaker, Illinois State Bar Association, Family Law Section, Chicago, Illinois (2017, September).
Shedding Gender Identity at the Schoolhouse Gate: The Role of Parental Filtering in Public Schools, Invited Panelist, Workshop on Family Law, Southeastern Association of Law Schools, Boca Raton, Florida (2017, August).
Brown v. Board of Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Chicago Bar Association, Young Lawyers Section, Chicago, Illinois (2017, May).
Rethinking Foster Care, Invited symposium participant, University of Michigan Law School (2016, May).
Women and Incarceration: Where Does it Lead To? Panel Moderator, 13th Annual Norman C. Amaker Retreat, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Woodstock, Illinois (2016, March).
Gender Identity Rights Obscured Behind Parental Claims, Invited Panelist, Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference: On the Rights of Children, American University Washington College of Law (2016, January).
Childhood Trauma: the Roles of Law, Society, and Institutions in Identifying, Addressing and Reducing Childhood Trauma, Invited Panelist, AALS 110th Annual Meeting, Section on Children and the Law (2016, January).
Bridging Two Worlds: The Role of the Psych-Law “Ambassador,” Keynote Speaker, 10th Annual Research Symposium at Prairie View A & M University, College of Juvenile Justice and Psychology, Prairie View, Texas (2015, April).