Assistant Professor of Law
Faculty Director, Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts
strivedi@ubalt.edu
410.837.5661
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 534
Program Administrative Specialist:
Katrice Williams
410-837-5615
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 536
Education
J.D., Boston University
B.A., New York University
Curriculum Vitae
Areas of Expertise:
Child Welfare
Family Law
Parents’ Rights
Children’s Rights
Domestic Violence
Gender and the Law
Law and Poverty
Reproductive Justice
Trivedi is a widely published legal scholar and policy advocate in popular media, with a focus on promoting policies and primary prevention approaches to prevent the damage to children of family separation. Her opinion piece, “Apparently We Don’t Need Abortion Because of Foster Care…or Whatever,”responding to a statement by Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett during the Dobbs argument, was the most-read article of 2021 on Ms. magazine’s website. She actively publishes in legal journals and media outlets ranging from the Washington Post to Ms. and The Hill. She has testified before the Maryland and Montana legislatures, and has worked with numerous states on improving legislation to avoid unnecessary family separation. She also partners with local and national nonprofits on issues affecting marginalized families and children.
Trivedi joined the UBalt Law faculty in 2021 as an assistant professor of law and faculty director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Family, Children and the Courts. In addition to teaching courses in family law and child welfare law, she is faculty advisor for the law school’s Family Law Association. She previously served as a clinical teaching fellow at the UBalt School of Law’s Bronfein Family Law Clinic, and as a clinical teaching fellow in the Domestic Violence Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center.
Prior to focusing on teaching and scholarship, Trivedi spent nearly a decade in legal practice. She was a staff attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services’ Family Defense Practice, representing parents embroiled in the child welfare system. Through this work, she tackled the myriad challenges facing low-income, minority and otherwise disadvantaged families and developed her scholarly interests in family separation. Prior to this, Trivedi also volunteered for Sanctuary for Families in New York, representing survivors of domestic violence and serving as co-chair of their Pro Bono Council LGBT committee.
Her first job out of law school was as an associate working in commercial and securities law at Winston & Strawn LLP in New York. During her time there, she dedicated countless hours to pro bono projects for organizations including the Innocence Project and Human Rights First, and personally secured asylum for a Gambian refugee persecuted for speaking out against his government.
As a law student, Trivedi became interested in poverty and constitutional law issues and worked as research assistant for a renowned Fourth Amendment scholar, assisting with projects related to racial profiling and illegal searches and seizures.
Selected Recent
“The Adoption and Safe Families Act is Not Worth Saving: The Case for Repeal” (forthcoming 2023) Family Court Review
“A Role for Communities in Reasonable Efforts to Prevent Removal,” Columbia Journal of Race and Law
“Help Not Hotlines: Replacing Mandated Reporting for Neglect with a New Framework forFamily
Support,” (with Shereen A. White, Shakira Paige, Meredith Giovanelli, Makena Mugambi) (2022) Family
Integrity and Justice Quarterly
"My Family Belongs to Me: A Child's Right to Family Integrity" (2021) Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review
“The Harm of Child Removal” (2019) New York University Review of Law & Social Change
Selected Recent Presentations
The Constitution Applies to Child Welfare, National Association of Counsel for Children’s National Child Welfare Law Conference, Baltimore, MD (August 22–24, 2022)
Trauma-informed Systemic Advocacy (with Sarah Katz & Maria Nenutzka Villamar)
American Bar Association National Parent Representation Conference, McClean, VA (April 7–8,
2022)
Keep up-to-date on Trivedi and CFCC. Subscribe to the monthly newsletter, CFCC Connections.