US-Family Law
The Project
Alongside criminal law, family law is the most culturally-bound area of legal practice, reflecting the anthropological, psychological and social features of the culture’s values, as protected by law.
German students will have the opportunity to witness the legal and factual arguments for the custody of children, divorce and protection from abuse proceedings during trial, all with the expert guidance of Prof. Norton, a US family law professor and practitioner. This will also be a particularly useful exercise in introducing German students to some of the relevant issues that affect poorer, marginalized and historically disadvantaged communities in the United States.
Introduction
Professor Dr. Kirk W. Junker (UoC)
Fields of research: Comparative Law, Comparative Environmental Law, International Environmental Law, Law of the European Union, Law and Science, Law and Rhetoric
Before joining the Law Faculty at the University of Cologne, Prof. Junker was a Professor of Law and Director of International Programs the Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, USA. Earlier, Prof. Junker held the first cross-border academic position in Ireland by being a full-time faculty member at both Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland and Dublin City University in Ireland. He was also a member of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Open University in the United Kingdom. Prof. Junker is an Adjunct Professor of Comparative and International Environmental Law to the Law Faculty atSts. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia and Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune, India. Prof. Junker is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and before the federal courts of the United States of America. He was litigation counsel to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources.
Professor Katherine L. W. Norton (Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Top three areas of expertise: Family Law, Access to Justice, Clinical Legal Education
Prof. Norton is an assistant professor and director of clinical and international programs. Within the clinical legal education program, she supervises the Family Law Clinic.
Norton focuses her scholarship on access to justice, trials of complex family law cases, and the application of effective advocacy and attorney obligations in clinical legal education.
She consults for the firm of Voelker & Kairys, P.C. Norton previously served in private practice with the law firms of Elliott & Davis, P.C. and Pollock, Begg, Komar, Glasser & Vertz, P.C. practicing in all areas of family law at both the Court of Common Pleas and appellate levels.
Super Lawyers magazine named her a "Rising Star" in the area of Family Law for the years 2010 through 2018 and 2020. Duquesne University School of Law, Student Bar Association, presented her with the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017. The same year, Norton received the Lorraine Bittner Award from the Allegheny County Bar Association for her work with the Family Law Clinic and its students. In 2019, the Allegheny County Bar Foundation awarded Norton the Edward J. O'Connor award.
Norton received her Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Allegheny College.
The Chair for US-american Law of the University of Cologne had the pleasure to welcome Professor Norton in the summer semester 2018 to the CUSL program for a seminar on "Family Law in the United States" and has maintained a frequent academic relationship since.