French families in the U.S: When things turn bad, from relocation to child abduction, a perspective from the attorneys and the mediators.

About this event

Online conference for lay people, with the purpose of providing general information to parents linked to the United States and France and wondering what is the extent of their margin of action when it comes to custody.

We will be pleased to welcome 4 speakers for this online conference: Hélène Carvallo, Melissa Kucinski, Richard Min and Nathalie Sennegon Nataf.

Hélène Carvallo is a French attorney and international family mediator. Admitted to the Paris and New York bars with extensive binational legal practice, Ms. Carvallo is honored to be a legal adviser for the Consulate General of France in New York. Through the years Hélène has developed a multilingual international practice focusing in Matrimonial & Family Law, involving cross-border couples and international families. She is currently developing her practice in the field of International and Intercultural Mediation in order to help and support families with cross-border issues. Hélène is the founder of the Carvallo Family Law Firm, a French-American boutique firm devoted to family law based in New York City, focused on international practice for married and unmarried couples in all areas of family law, including cross border estate planning and inheritance cases. Hélène is also a founding member of FAAN, an international network of lawyers, and more recently, of BRIDGE, an international network of intercultural mediators. Hélène has volunteered for the Brooklyn Legal Aid Society and currently offers pro bono consultations once a month at the Consulate General of France in New York. She is an active member of several professional organizations in the United States and in France.

Melissa Kucinski is an international family law expert with her principal office in Washington, D.C. She owns the boutique international law firm of MK Family Law, PLLC. She served as a consultant to the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 2013 and has written a dozen articles published in more than one language on international children’s issues and mediation of complex cross-border custody and child abduction cases. Melissa has presented at over 30 national and international conferences on international children’s issues and mediation. Melissa has traveled to Tokyo twice for meetings on the Hague Child Abduction Convention – first in 2014 as part of a U.S. delegation and again in 2019, at the invitation of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Melissa has been a long-standing member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. She served as a private sector advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the Hague’s Sixth Special Commission meeting in 2011 to review the practical operation of two international children’s treaties, and she attended the Seventh Special Commission meeting in 2017 with International Social Service (ISS). She chaired ISS’s efforts to create a global network of international family mediation resources. Melissa has served in a variety of capacities within the American Bar Association (ABA), including past chair of an International Family Mediation Task Force, and chair of two separate international family law committees. She is currently co-chair of the ABA International Family Law Committee and co-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s International Family Law Committee. Melissa has taught the International Family Law course at the George Washington University School of Law since 2010. She is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, and has been elected to its Board of Governors. Her book, A Practical Handbook for the Child's Attorney: Effectively Representing Children in Custody Cases, included a chapter on representing children in complex international abduction and relocation cases. Her newest book, Family Law Across Borders: Cases and Comments was released in 2021 by West Academic. She is the author of an international family law blog found at www.familylawacrossborders.com.

Richard Min is a partner at the New York law firm Green Kaminer Min & Rockmore LLP. He is admitted to practice in New York State, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. His practice focuses exclusively on family law, with a particular emphasis on international family law, child abduction and cross-border custody issues pursuant to the Hague Convention and the UCCJEA. He has extensive trial experience in 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention cases having been involved in countless cross border child abduction or custody cases in New York, Arkansas, California, Colorado, New Hampshire, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, and Washington. He has also argued 6 appeals before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Richard’s cases are frequently cited and discussed in the legal academic community, with one of his appeals (Marks v. Hochhauser, 876 F.3d 416 (2d Cir. 2017)) being the subject of an article in the St. John's International Law Review (Vol. 31, No. 2, Fall 2018). His successful case, Golan v. Saada, which involved a nine-day trial, four appeals, and three and a half years of litigation, will be just the fifth Hague Abduction Convention case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court which Richard will have argued on March 22, 2022. Richard is an active member of several bar associations. He is a member of the Executive Committees for both the International and Family Law Sections of the New York State Bar Association and co-chair of the Family Law Committee of NYSBA’s International Law Section and the Amicus Committee of NYSBA’s Family Law Section. Richard is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL), which is a worldwide association of practicing lawyers who are recognized by their peers as the most experienced and expert family law specialists in their respective countries. He is a member of the IAFL’s Amicus Committee, which submits briefs on complex family law issues around the world. He has taught several legal education courses and authored articles on the topic of child abduction and cross border custody issues. In addition to teaching and writing on the topic of child abduction, Richard has also hosted foreign delegations, coordinated through the State Department, to discuss enforcement of custody orders and implementation of the Hague Abduction Convention in their respective jurisdictions (Lebanon, September 2019; and Costa Rica, September 2021).

Nathalie Sennegon Nataf is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, Expert and specialist in family conflicts, Author, Consultant and Speaker. She puts her expertise acquired during more than 25 years of practice as a Family Law attorney in France, then mediator, serving families leaving between France and the United States. Always concerned about the best interests of children in situations of family breakdown, divorces and separations, also very involved with associations helping families in difficulty in France and the US. She also works in close collaboration with therapists, psychologists, pediatricians and child psychiatrists, to better meet the needs of families she supports, advises and guides. She can be reachable through her website : http://www.sennegon-nataf.com She built and is the director of the National French Chapter of the NADP (The National Association of divorce Professionals) she is a Certified divorce Specialist by the NADP.