The founding director of the Children and Family Law Program of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Nan pioneered representation of children in complex custody disputes and has focused her work on issues involving child custody, children and parenting both in the context of litigation and in her alternative dispute resolution practice which includes mediation and serving as a collaborative lawyer. Her extensive experience as an appellate attorney includes over fifteen reported cases, a number of them ground breaking, involving child custody, adoption and guardianship of both children and the mentally impaired. Among them are Custody of Lori, 444 Mass. 316 (2005); Adoption of Lars, 46 Mass. App. Ct. 30 (1998); Care and Protection of Isaac, 419 Mass. 602 (1995); Care & Protection of Robert, 408 Mass. 52 (1990); In the Matter of Mary Moe, 385 Mass. 555 (1982); Petition of the Department of Pub. Welfare to Dispense with Consent to Adoption, 383 Mass. 573 (1981); Custody of a Minor (No. 2), 378 Mass. 712 (1979); and Custody of a Minor (No. 1), 377 Mass. 876 (1979). She has also written several books and numerous articles on child custody, guardianship and family law issues including Children, Families and the State, (MCLE, 1993, 1996) (2 vols).

Nan has also created and presented a wide variety of education and training programs for family law litigation lawyers and appellate attorneys as well as other professionals involved in family law, child custody and parenting issues, and she has been a frequent speaker on issues involving children in the legal system. She is a member of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council and the Massachusetts and American Bar Association family law committees, serves on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) and the Steering Committee of the Boston Bar Association’s Family Law Section. Nan has also served with numerous organizations addressing children’s issues, including her appointments to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Commission on Juvenile Justice and the Governor's and Massachusetts Bar Association’s Commission on the Unmet Legal Needs of Children, as well as service on the boards of editors of the Massachusetts Family Law Journal and the Boston Bar Journal.

Through her experience, Nan has developed the belief that conflicts within families, especially those involving children and the mentally disabled who are least able to speak for and protect themselves, can and too often do cause significant harm to those individuals, both in the shorter term as the conflict occurs, and over the longer term as they live and grow with its consequences. Her experiences with conflict in a broad range of arenas, including divorce and paternity, child abuse and neglect, mental illness, retardation and deterioration, foster care and adoption, and extended family conflicts over care, custody and contact, have led to the conviction that while some cases must be litigated, others should not. By emphasizing problem-solving models such as collaborative lawyering and mediation and using litigation as a tool when necessary, she strives to minimize the harm and maximize the benefit of the legal system to families and enable them to structure and restructure family constellations constructively and positively.

For additional information on Jinanne Elder, please see her resume.

To contact Jinanne Elder, please email her at elder@bmenlaw.com.