Professor of Law and co-director of the Children & Youth Law Clinic, Bernard Perlmutter presented two lectures at the XXXVIIIth International Congress on Law and Mental Health, held at the Faculty of Law of the Universitat de Barcelona, under the auspices of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health, Montreal. In one of the lectures, he and Tamar Ezer, associate director of the Human Rights Clinic, did a joint presentation titled “Socially Engaged Artistic and Legal Collaborations.” Perlmutter also presented “Serving Vulnerable Populations Through Trainee Collaborations in Law Clinics and Forensic Psychiatry Fellowships,” in a separate panel addressing topics in the Disability, Law and Society stream of the International Congress.
Additionally, Perlmutter was interviewed for a new Futuro Studios podcast series recounting the Elián González story 25 years after the events called Chess Piece: The Elián González Story. Perlmutter provided legal expertise and perspective on the legal chronology and complexity of the case.
At the Children & Youth Law Clinic, Perlmutter teaches and supervises second- and third-year law students who handle cases involving abused, abandoned and neglected children and adolescents in dependency, foster care, adoption, public benefits, health care, mental health, disability, education, and immigration matters, in addition to appellate, legislative and administrative advocacy, and law reform litigation.
He has litigated numerous federal and state court impact and class action lawsuits seeking to reform Florida's foster care system. Perlmutter has submitted and joined amicus curiae briefs in federal and state cases addressing the juvenile death penalty and life without parole sentences; children’s constitutional rights to counsel in dependency court proceedings; improved access to health care, educational, and therapeutic services for children in state care; LGBTQ rights to foster and adopt children; and a range of systemic issues affecting children with disabilities, immigrant children, and older foster children.
