Hasti Anderson

  • Hosted by Florida's Children First
  • Service location Miami
  • Law school University of Iowa College of Law
  • Issue area Children/Youth, Education/Special Education
  • Fellowship class year 2012
  • Program Design-Your-Own Fellowship

The Project

Hasti’s Crossover to Justice Project provided children and young adults who were dually involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems (“crossover youth”) with holistic, client-directed representation that extended beyond the courtroom and into the community, while providing the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office with training, consultation, and guidance in meeting their crossover clients’ unique needs.

The Inspiration

Need Addressed By Project

Hasti’s project addressed the unique needs of crossover youth by providing them with legal representation in dependency matters as well as their unmet civil legal needs such as educational and mental health services and securing public benefits. Her model ensured crossover children received an attorney acting exclusively on their behalf, and representing their expressed wishes and legal interests. The project aimed at providing children and young adults with continuity of representation between their delinquency, criminal, child welfare, and civil legal matters. The client-directed model further ensured a greater degree of accountability on behalf of the children. She was housed in the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office, Juvenile Division.

Fellowship Highlights

During her Fellowship, Hasti:
• Presented a model of representation of crossover children that introduced holistic, wraparound legal services to ensure greater continuity during a period of great turbulence in a child’s life
• Provided legal representation, counseling, case management, and information sharing to nearly 100 children and young adults
• Developed training and educational materials to assist public defenders in addressing and representing their crossover clients’ unique needs and interests

Where are they now?

Hasti continues her work in the representation of children in the child welfare and related fields as a Salisbury Clinical Teaching Fellow at Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s Civitas ChildLaw Center.

Meet Other Fellows Like Hasti

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Rachel Judd

Host: Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center

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Sponsor: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Walmart, Inc.

Lily Eagle Colby

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Sponsor: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Christina Campbell

Host: Center For Educational Excellence In Alternative Settings

Sponsor: Greenberg Traurig, LLP