2019 Guardian ad Litem Training and Update 19-02 Friday, January 25, 2019 presented by The South Carolina Bar Continuing Legal Education Division http://www.scbar.org/CLE SC Supreme Court Commission on CLE Course No. 190693 In the Best Interest of the Child: 2019 Guardian ad Litem Training and Update SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES (by order of presentation) Julianne M. Stokes Stoker & Haselden, LLC (course planner) Julianne Meggs Stokes graduated with honors from Presbyterian College in 2003, earning a B.S. in Political Science. She received her J.D. from Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law in 2006. Mrs. Stokes was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 2006 and has practiced almost exclusively in the Family Courts of South Carolina since that time. She deals on a daily basis with issues such as divorce, equitable distribution of assets and liabilities, alimony, and time-sharing and support of children. She also represents clients in high-asset, complex marital and family law cases, drafting and enforcing prenuptial agreements, modification of alimony or child support payments, modification of custody, and parental relocation cases. In addition to her very active litigation practice, Mrs. Stokes is also a certified Family Court Mediator and acts as a Guardian ad Litem in private custody matters. Mrs. Stokes is a member of the South Carolina Bar (Family Law Section), Charleston County Bar, and the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association. She is also a member of the South Carolina Bar Resolution of Fee Disputes Board. Mrs. Stokes is married to her college sweetheart, Joshua P. Stokes, who is also a local attorney. They have two rambunctious sons and welcomed a daughter in 2015. Leslie Fisk South Carolina Legal Services Leslie Ragsdale Fisk completed her undergraduate degree at Baylor University and her law degree at West Virginia University School of Law. She has worked for South Carolina Legal Services for eleven years; including four years in the Spartanburg Office and seven years in the Greenwood Office. She previously held the position of Lead Domestic Violence Attorney, then was the Family Law Unit Head from 2015-2018. In 2018, she became the Managing Attorney of the Greenwood Office. Leslie chaired the Young Lawyer Division Cinderella Project for Greenwood County in 2014 and 2015 and serves on the South Carolina Bar’s Wellness Committee and the Self Represented Litigants committee. Leslie was a member of Governor Haley’s Domestic Violence Task Force. She graduated from the Bar’s Leadership Academy in 2014 and tied for SCLS Attorney of the Year for 2014. Leslie was the 8th Judicial Circuit nominee for the S.C. Bar’s Young Lawyer of the Year for 2015. She is a volunteer mediator at the Upstate Mediation Center and enjoys providing presentations for Continuing Legal Education and for community groups on issues related to family law and domestic violence. Michele Dahl Sturkie Sturkie Law, LLC Michele is originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Cabrini College in Radnor, Pennsylvania in 1988 with a B.A. in History, and minors in Mathematics and Political Science. She received her certificate in Paralegal Studies with a concentration in litigation from the Philadelphia Institute in 1989. Michele worked for almost ten years as a litigation paralegal for the U.S. Army, the State of Utah, and at private law firms in Utah and South Carolina before attending law school at the University of South Carolina. She received her J.D. from the University of South Carolina in 2002, where she received the Harvey L. Golden Domestic Relations Student of the Year Award in 2001from the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In 2003, Michele received a Pro Bono Service Award in 2003 from the South Carolina Bar. She practiced with McDougall & Self, LLP mainly in the Florence office from October 2002 until March 2010, then was a partner with McGowan Rogers Stewart Hiller & Krize from March 2010 until March 2016. On March 1, 2016, Michele opened Sturkie Law, LLC in Florence, South Carolina. Michele is a member of the South Carolina Bar, the South Carolina Women's Bar Association, and the Florence County Bar. Since she became a lawyer, her practice has been in Family Court with domestic relations cases, including serving as some Guardian ad litem in private custody matters. Michele became a Certified Family Court Mediator in July 2016. Michele practiced under the name "Michele R. Krize" until December 2016, when she married Wayne Sturkie. Almand J. Barron Th Law Offices of Shea & Barron Almand Barron graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Almand received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina and was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 1998. She has practiced solely in the area of Family Law since her admission to the Bar and also serves as a Guardian ad Litem for children in Family Court matters. Almand is a member of the South Carolina Women Lawyer’s Association, and the Richland and Lexington County Bar Associations. She is also a Fellow in the South Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She is Board Certified in Family Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. John Means A’Hern (Jay) The A’Hern Law Firm, LLC Jay attended Dreher High School in Columbia and the Emory University in Atlanta before graduating from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2005. He has done Guardian ad litem work since 2006, and for approximately the last ten years his main focus has been serving as a GAL in contested family court cases. Leslie Armstrong Sahn Law Firm, LLC Leslie A. Armstrong, Esq. is licensed South Carolina and North Carolina attorney, a Licensed Professional Counselor Intern, (LPC/I), a National Certified Counselor (NCC), and a South Carolina Certified Family Court Mediator. She is a 2007 graduate of Furman University where she earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and a 2011 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law where she obtained her Juris Doctor and served on the editorial board of the South Carolina Law Review. After law school, Mrs. Armstrong then went on to pursue a Master of Arts in Counseling with a mental health concentration which she received from Wake Forest University in 2016. She is currently a partner at Sahn Law Firm, LLC and is now in the process of launching her solo practice where she practices exclusively in family law, also including mediation, guardian ad litem work, working with families affected by parental alienation, and developing professional education programs designed for mental health and legal professionals which focus on topics relevant to the interfacing of these professional communities in serving families undergoing high- conflict divorce/separation cases. Ms. Armstrong also works for Changing Families, Inc., a 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to educating members of the community who are confronting the challenges of building step, and blended families, and mediates family law cases as a member of the Mediation and Meeting Center of Charleston (MMCC). Ms. Armstrong is an active member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and has attended specialized training through this organization in the field of parental alienation. She has also been trained by Dr. Amy Baker as a provider of Restoring Family Connections, a program for reunifying adult children of alienation with their parents. She is a member of the Parental Alienation Study Group (PASG), and recently attended the PASG Nordic conference in Stockholm where she also received training in the Family Bridges (FBAC) reunification program. (Note: I currently practice as the family law partner at Sahn Law Firm, LLC, but I have also launched a solo practice, Armstrong Family Law, LLC in conjunction with finishing out my cases with Sahn Law Firm. Armstrong Family Law will be my new practice going forward – you can include one or both of these in my bio as you feel is appropriate. Helen Elliot Wheeler The Center for Families, LLC Helen Wheeler is a graduate (With Distinction) from The Citadel with a Master’s Degree in Clinical Counseling. She has been a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) since 2001 and is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor preparing and supervising future counselors. In addition, she is an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Counseling Program at Webster University. Ms. Wheeler’s private counseling practice specializes in family counseling with emphasis on high conflict co- parenting, marriage counseling, children counseling and reunification/clarification issues. The Center for Families is a teaching facility cooperating with many graduate schools. She is also a 20- year veteran Certified Public School Teacher. Ms Wheeler is a Certified Family Court Mediator and was a Guardian ad Litem for DSS. She has received specialized training in working with high conflict divorcing couples and is a Nationally Certified Parent Coordinator. She has been qualified as an expert in the Ninth and First Judicial Districts in working with high conflict divorcing couples, the impact of high conflict divorce on children, as well as child development, family counseling, and parent coordination, among others. She is a member of the Association of Mental Health Counselors of America (AMCHA) who has named her a Diplomate in Marriage and Family Counseling and the local South Carolina Association of Licensed Professional Counselors (SCALPC) She is also a member of Association of Family Conciliation Courts (AFCC), America Association of Christian Counselors, (AACC) and the Parental Alienation Study Group (PASG). She has presented CLE activities for the SC Bar (“Dealing with High Conflict Clients”) and the statewide GAL CLE (“Alternative Dispute Resolution: Parent Coordination” and “Visitation Refusal: Is It Parental Alienation?”) She has presented on several occasions for the Family Court Bar of Charleston and Dorchester Counties (“Dealing with Difficult Clients”, “What do Parents Need to Know About Mediation?” “Understanding Visitation Refusal in Terms of Parental Alienation” [for Charleston area GALs]).