CFCC Executive Director
rstahl@ubalt.edu
410.837.5613
Education
Areas of Expertise
- Child Abuse
- Children’s Rights
- Domestic Violence
- International Disparities in Children’s Rights
- Children’s Testimony
- Child Welfare
- Psychological Issues in the Courts
- Trauma and the Legal System
Rebecca Stahl is a family and juvenile law lawyer, specializing in issues involving children. Rebecca’s career focus has been to change the legal system to better serve children and families by working with multiple courts and jurisdictions, representing children, and working as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, a somatic-based intervention to help people navigate overwhelming challenges in both life and work.
Executive director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) since 2021, Rebecca also serves as an observer for the Uniform Law Commission’s Committee on Child Participation in Family Court Proceedings and as past chair of the board of Somatic Experiencing International.
Before joining CFCC as deputy director in 2019, Rebecca worked at the Children’s Law Center of California in Los Angeles County and the Pima County (Arizona) Office of Children’s Counsel as a lawyer for children in child welfare and family law cases. As a Fulbright scholar in New Zealand Rebecca earned a Master of Law degree from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and wrote a thesis on the role of lawyers for children in family court cases.
Rebecca presents widely at national and international conferences focused on children’s rights and family law and on the role of lawyers for children in family and juvenile courts. Rebecca coauthored Representing Children in Dependency and Family Law: Beyond the Law, a book regarding the need for children’s lawyers to understand psychological issues and has published articles on the role of children’s representation and trauma.
Selected Publications
“Responding Effectively to Trauma Manifestations in Child Welfare Cases,” Family Court Review, 2020.
“Religious Issues in Child Welfare Cases,” ABA Family Advocate, 2019.
Representing Children in Family and Dependency Court: Beyond the Law (with Philip M. Stahl), Family Law Section of the American Bar Association, 2018.
Selected Recent Presentations
“Implicit Bias from a Somatic Perspective,” Family League of Baltimore, 2022.
“Trauma Sensitive Interviewing of Children,” Wisconsin Inter-Professional Committee on Divorce, 2022.
“Affirming LGBTQ+ Folks: Pronouns and More,” University of Baltimore School of Law, 2021 and 2022.
“Cultural sensitivity for a Trauma-Responsive Practice,” Association of Family and Conciliation
Courts, Annual Conference (virtual), (with Dr. Liana Shelby), 2021.
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