Community - Faculty - Stacey Platt Profile
Stacey Platt is a faculty lecturer and trainer in courses involving child and family law and trial practice.
Faculty Profile Stacey Platt
Family advocate
Stacey Platt promotes conflict resolution processes and healing
Stacey Platt, Curt and Linda Rodin Clinical Professor of Law and Social Justice and Associate Director of the Civitas ChildLaw Center and Clinic, promotes conflict resolution processes and healing wherever possible in her role as a professor and child advocate. She serves as a faculty lecturer and trainer in law school courses involving child and family law and trial practice.
Professor Platt had considered a legal career in high school when people told her she was good at arguing, but it was the experience of being called as a witness in a case while working for child welfare in New York City after college that galvanized her. She found the courtroom fascinating. Although she was the first in her family to attend college and knew nothing about law school or law practice, she decided to take the LSAT.
After law school she was a staff attorney with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, where she focused on domestic violence and child protection. Professor Platt came to Loyola as a visiting clinical professor for a two-year stint in 1997. She has stayed for 26 years and counting.
Platt and her students represent children in private family law disputes between parents. Platt says, “Our role requires us to pursue settlement whenever possible, and to develop and advocate for children’s best interests where settlement is not possible.”
According to Platt, “In family law, settlement, via mediation, negotiation, or other alternative dispute resolution processes, is the gold standard: it requires parents and children to compromise, as we all must do in many aspects of life, and it also gives them space to begin healing. Even the most seemingly intractable cases can settle if we grasp the open moments. Trials can be great fun for lawyers, and in a small number of cases, trials are needed, but in 33 years of legal practice, I’ve never seen family members walk out of a trial feeling vindicated in the way that television pretends.”
“Our role requires us to pursue settlement whenever possible, and to develop and advocate for children’s best interests where settlement is not possible.”
She loves working with students. “There are so many great aspects to working with law students. In family and child law, it’s critical to keep learning and expanding your thinking. The students help me do that; they are almost always ahead of me in incorporating newer ways of thinking about families and cutting-edge conflict resolution processes. Indirectly, also, they keep me on my game; preparing teaching materials and subjects requires thoughtful consideration that I did not always have the luxury or impetus for in practice.”
Platt finds that Loyola’s mission is a good fit for her primary goals in being an attorney and a person. “For example, seeking justice on behalf of marginalized communities. For me, this means I have the joy of an accepted identity in my work. In other words, I don’t have to take off my work identity when I get home. I have the freedom to be myself.”
Professor Platt has been a frequent teacher for the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. She is the past president (2023-2024) and a longtime member of the board of directors of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, an international and interdisciplinary membership organization focused on best policies and practices in family law matters. She serves on the editorial board of Family Court Review, a widely read, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal. She speaks nationally and frequently on child and family law issues.
Professor Platt is a recipient of the Chicago Bar Association’s Leonard Jay Schrager Award of Excellence for contributions to improving access to justice and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts President’s Award. (November 2024)
Stacey Platt, Curt and Linda Rodin Clinical Professor of Law and Social Justice and Associate Director of the Civitas ChildLaw Center and Clinic, promotes conflict resolution processes and healing wherever possible in her role as a professor and child advocate. She serves as a faculty lecturer and trainer in law school courses involving child and family law and trial practice.
Professor Platt had considered a legal career in high school when people told her she was good at arguing, but it was the experience of being called as a witness in a case while working for child welfare in New York City after college that galvanized her. She found the courtroom fascinating. Although she was the first in her family to attend college and knew nothing about law school or law practice, she decided to take the LSAT.
After law school she was a staff attorney with the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago, where she focused on domestic violence and child protection. Professor Platt came to Loyola as a visiting clinical professor for a two-year stint in 1997. She has stayed for 26 years and counting.
Platt and her students represent children in private family law disputes between parents. Platt says, “Our role requires us to pursue settlement whenever possible, and to develop and advocate for children’s best interests where settlement is not possible.”
According to Platt, “In family law, settlement, via mediation, negotiation, or other alternative dispute resolution processes, is the gold standard: it requires parents and children to compromise, as we all must do in many aspects of life, and it also gives them space to begin healing. Even the most seemingly intractable cases can settle if we grasp the open moments. Trials can be great fun for lawyers, and in a small number of cases, trials are needed, but in 33 years of legal practice, I’ve never seen family members walk out of a trial feeling vindicated in the way that television pretends.”
She loves working with students. “There are so many great aspects to working with law students. In family and child law, it’s critical to keep learning and expanding your thinking. The students help me do that; they are almost always ahead of me in incorporating newer ways of thinking about families and cutting-edge conflict resolution processes. Indirectly, also, they keep me on my game; preparing teaching materials and subjects requires thoughtful consideration that I did not always have the luxury or impetus for in practice.”
Platt finds that Loyola’s mission is a good fit for her primary goals in being an attorney and a person. “For example, seeking justice on behalf of marginalized communities. For me, this means I have the joy of an accepted identity in my work. In other words, I don’t have to take off my work identity when I get home. I have the freedom to be myself.”
Professor Platt has been a frequent teacher for the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. She is the past president (2023-2024) and a longtime member of the board of directors of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, an international and interdisciplinary membership organization focused on best policies and practices in family law matters. She serves on the editorial board of Family Court Review, a widely read, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal. She speaks nationally and frequently on child and family law issues.
Professor Platt is a recipient of the Chicago Bar Association’s Leonard Jay Schrager Award of Excellence for contributions to improving access to justice and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts President’s Award. (November 2024)