Featured Faculty: Michael Jenuwine
Associate Clinical Professor of Law
In 2000, the year that Michael Jenuwine finished his law degree, he also earned a Ph.D. in psychology. That dual focus began when the Notre Dame professor was a graduate student in psychology. During an internship at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, he saw adolescents who either had been abused and neglected, involuntarily committed, or disposed to the juvenile Department of Corrections who required psychiatric treatment.
“I found myself going to court fairly frequently with the kids I worked with. And I had a supervisor at the time who had a J.D. and a Ph.D., who taught a seminar on the overlap of the legal system and the mental health system. That’s what made me want to go in that direction,” says Jenuwine. “I thought it was important, first of all, to educate lawyers and judges about mental health issues, but also to educate mental health professionals about the legal ramifications of their actions.”
At Notre Dame, Jenuwine carries out that mission through his teaching and clinical work. He represents clients in family law and disability cases through the Law School’s Legal Aid Clinic, which offers its services free of charge. He teaches alternative dispute resolution and applied mediation, in which students “actually go into the courts and do mediation in paternity, divorce and guardianship cases where there are issues of child support, child custody and visitation. Under my supervision, the students mediate with the parties in those cases.”
Whether wearing his psychologist or lawyer hat, Jenuwine believes mediation is crucial to the well being of children caught in domestic conflicts. “What we’re doing with mediation is helping people resolve the immediate problem, which is a legal issue, and also helping both parents identify what their real needs are,” he says. “By helping both parties be heard, we can model for them how to resolve a dispute. And they can take that out into the real world rather than running to court every time there’s a problem.”
With time, Jenuwine adds, “I would like to see more of an emphasis on the best interests of the child as opposed to collecting mental health information as ammunition to use in a divorce or custody case. It would be nice to see a real focus on addressing mental health issues in kids that serve children’s best interests, and not the needs of the litigants.”
To learn more about Michael Jenuwine, visit his faculty profile page.
