Custody Experts After Kayden’s Law: New State Rules for Abuse Testimony and Reunification Orders

Julie R. Colton, Partner | Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP

Julie R. Colton is a partner in the Pittsburgh office of Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, where her practice covers divorce, child custody, support, asset division, prenuptial agreements, and international custody, along with family law mediation and collaborative law. She treats clear communication with clients about expectations and outcomes as central to the work, helping them separate the legal questions in a case from the emotions that accompany it so they can decide well for their families, and litigating when a court result is what the client needs.

• Education & Credentials

A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she earned her JD, she also holds a BA in Psychology from Gannon University. She is admitted in Pennsylvania and before the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and she returns to her law school as an Adjunct Professor teaching family law.

• Recognition & Leadership

Best Lawyers® recognized her from 2019 through 2026 and named her the 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” in Pittsburgh, PA. She was selected for Pennsylvania’s Rising Stars® in 2019 and 2020 and for Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® in 2021, 2025, and 2026, including Top 100: 2025 and 2026 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, Top 50: 2025 and 2026 Women Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, Top 50: 2025 and 2026 Pittsburgh Super Lawyers, and Top 5: 2026 Family Law Pennsylvania Super Lawyers. JD Supra named her a Top Author in its 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards, among the ten leading authors nationally covering family law and related matters.

• Professional Involvement

Within the organized bar, she is Immediate Past Chair of the ACBA Family Law Section following two terms as Chair, and was elected Second Vice Chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section at the 2026 PBA Family Law Section Summer Meeting; she also holds the position of Treasurer for that Section, sits on its Section Council, and serves on its Court Relations and Guidelines Committees. She is a Fellow of the Allegheny County Bar Foundation and a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association Board of Governors for a term running July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029, having previously served from 2011 to 2014. She sits on the Domestic Relations Law Advisory Committee of the Joint State Government Commission, the bipartisan research agency of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. She is a Fellow with the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and previously co-chaired its Domestic Violence Taskforce, and she volunteers as a pro bono advocate for plaintiffs in Protection From Abuse cases with Neighborhood Legal Service, where she formerly served as President of the Board.

• Experience

Arguments before the Pennsylvania Superior Court sit alongside a trial, mediation, and collaborative practice. Her notable matters include custody, support, and divorce cases spanning multiple states with contested questions of jurisdiction and application of law; international custody disputes between parents from different countries, including which country has jurisdiction to decide the case and what the custody schedule should be; a complex divorce in which the dependent spouse obtained the assets needed to maintain the marital residence and pursue a career in the arts; and mediations of complex divorce and custody matters that both parties resolved without litigation. Before joining Obermayer she practiced at boutique family law firms and clerked for the Honorable Kim D. Eaton in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, Family Division. She has published on family law topics in The Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania Family Lawyer, The Journal of the Allegheny County Bar Association, and Jurist, and has appeared on “Dealing with Divorce” on KDKA Radio.

Paul Griffin, Legal Director | Child Justice, Inc

Paul Griffin is the Legal Director of Child Justice, Inc., the Silver Spring, Maryland organization whose work centers on protecting children, providing support, and promoting change. He has been a litigator for over 25 years in both state and federal courts and is admitted to practice law in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Prior to college he served four years in the United States Marine Corps, having enlisted at the age of 17.

• Education & Credentials

He graduated with a Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1997 and graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University in 1994 with a baccalaureate degree in Government. He was also selected as a Bloomberg Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, studying for a Master of Public Health with a focus on violence and its role in child and adolescent health; Bloomberg Fellows receive full scholarships toward the MPH degree.

• Recognition & Leadership

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) gave him its Outstanding Frontline Professional Award in 2022, an award for a front-line professional who demonstrates extraordinary dedication and skill in direct care work on behalf of children and families. In 2023 he received the Leaders in Law award from The Daily Record and the Maryland State Bar Association, a recognition of excellence and achievement in the legal profession. Earlier honors include the Friend of Children Award in 2008 from Justice for Children, Child Justice’s predecessor organization, and Child Justice’s Heroes of Child Justice Award in 2015.

• Professional Involvement

Maryland’s governor appointed him twice. In October of 2016, Governor Lawrence J. Hogan named him to the NeShante and Chloe Davis Domestic Violence Prevention Task Force, charged with studying and recommending domestic violence prevention strategies and policies to the Governor and the Maryland General Assembly. In June 2019 the Governor appointed him to the Workgroup to Study Child Custody Proceedings Involving Child Abuse or Domestic Violence Allegations; after meeting over an 18-month period the Workgroup issued a 124-page report with 24 recommendations focused on better protecting children and on incorporating the latest science into custody proceedings, and the Maryland legislature enacted some of those recommendations in 2022 through the judicial-training law found at MD FL 9101.3. He has testified before the Maryland General Assembly concerning proposed changes in Maryland’s laws on abuse and domestic violence, and before the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force on the role that child physical and sexual abuse play in leading children to become susceptible to human trafficking. He served three-and-a-half years on the Child Justice Board of Directors before his appointment as Legal Director.

• Experience

More than a hundred cases involving allegations of domestic violence and/or child physical and sexual abuse have come through his practice, litigated or consulted on, and he has conducted training for other attorneys in this specialized area, advised litigators trying such cases, and presented before bar organizations and child-abuse-prevention organizations on trauma, child abuse and domestic violence in family courts, and child-protective services’ role in protecting children from abuse. Since 2003 he has served as a Special Master to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on multiple terrorism cases, among them the 1983 bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon and the 1998 Al Qaeda bombings of the United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, presiding over hearings where survivors and family members give testimony and present evidence, making determinations regarding monetary awards, and filing a Report and Recommendation with the Court. He was formerly an associate at the law firm of Spriggs & Hollingsworth and Counsel at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, both in Washington, D.C.

SESSION 1 – Qualifying and Striking Custody Experts Under the New Kayden’s Law Statutes | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session examines the federal Keeping Children Safe From Family Violence Act (34 U.S.C. § 10446) and its state-level adoptions — including California SB 331, Pennsylvania SB 55, Colorado HB24-1350, and Utah Om’s Law — focusing on the new statutory qualification requirements for custody experts in proceedings involving domestic violence and child abuse. Attorneys will learn how to establish or challenge expert qualifications under these statutes, file effective motions to address parental alienation testimony, and leverage mandatory written-findings requirements and training-documentation rules to protect clients. Attendees leave with a practical motions framework usable at the trial level.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Reunification Therapy Restrictions and Representing the Protective Parent | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session examines the wave of state statutes restricting court-ordered reunification therapy— including Arizona SB 1076, Texas HB 3783, New Hampshire HB 306, and state Kayden’s Law enactments— and their practical implications for attorneys representing protective parents. Attendees will learn how to challenge reunification orders using the scientifically valid and generally accepted standard embedded in these statutes, how to counter parental alienation cross-allegations with empirical authority, and how to leverage retroactivity provisions to modify existing orders. The session equips family law practitioners with a litigation framework drawn directly from new statutory text, judicial guidance from the NCJFCJ, and peer-reviewed research on custody outcomes.