History

The first AFCC conference was held on Saturday, September 7, 1963, in Los Angeles. Conciliation counselors and judges from six counties in California gathered to talk shop well into the evening. Among those participating in the first inaugural event were two Los Angeles Conciliation Court counselors who would lead AFCC in the future. Meyer Elkin, who would serve as AFCC President in 1977 and as editor of the Review from 1963 to 1986, and Stanley Cohen, AFCC Executive Director from 1983 to 1988 and co-editor of the Review from 1986 to 1991.

Interest in court-connected services spread beyond California as courts in Hawaii, Idaho, Ohio, Oregon, Michigan, Arizona, Montana and several Canadian provinces began establishing court services. By 1964, the AFCC conference had grown to a two-day event with 90 participants coming from several states outside of California. In May of 1967, AFCC held its conference outside of California for the first time in Phoenix, Arizona.

AFCC’s founding members had a different focus from those working in family courts and court services today. The job title for many court service staff members was “marriage counselor.” The work of the counselors focused on reconciliation between husbands and wives. Conference programs and Review articles emphasized the role of the court as a provider of short-term marriage counseling services and the use of husband-wife agreements to resolve marital disputes and promote reconciliation. The use of trial separation agreements as a way to effect reconciliation was discussed as a novel, albeit controversial, technique. AFCC went on record encouraging then California Governor Ronald Reagan to continue the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Family and “to begin a concerted assault on the high incidence of divorce in our society and its tragic consequences.” Blueprint for a Successful Marriage, a brochure developed by the Los Angeles Conciliation Court, was made available to other courts through AFCC.

By 1965, AFCC had adopted bylaws and a constitution. Recognizing that the appeal of the organization had spread beyond California, “California” was dropped from the organization’s title. The name was changed to the Conference of Conciliation Courts. By the end of the decade, AFCC committees were established to focus on legislation, professional standards, publications and membership.

As the 1960s drew to a close, worldwide social and political changes did not escape AFCC. A 1968 survey of all 50 states and the District of Columbia found that 19 states had some form of court-connected counseling services. No fault divorce became law in California. The December 1969 issue of the Conciliation Courts Review introduced a new concept to the movement with an editorial by Meyer Elkin titled, “A Conciliation Court is More than a Reconciliation Court.” Other articles focused on the role of the attorney in divorce and the development of visitation guidelines. Former AFCC President, and prominent judge, Hon. Byron Lindsey of San Diego, wrote an article questioning whether we were expecting too much of marriage.

By the early 1970s, AFCC’s conferences had traveled some distance from their original California home. Annual conferences had been hosted by court personnel in Honolulu, Phoenix, Detroit and Chicago. Family court services were beginning to turn their attention to helping couples end their marriages with a greater sense of dignity and self-worth, and less trauma for both the parents and children.

The Review was becoming established as a significant publication, having grown in size and scope and serving as a harbinger of things to come for family courts worldwide. The September 1970 issue featured an article titled, “The Modern Family Rescue Team—Judge, Lawyer and Behavioral Scientist,” by Andrew S. Watson, MD. The article called for an interdisciplinary approach to court services, an increased number of counselors and thorough education of the bench and bar. In that same issue, Jack Bradford and Jean Brindley, marriage counselors from the Third Judicial Circuit in Detroit, wrote about group orientation and group intake processes, a precursor to the parent education programs that would proliferate so dramatically two decades later.

In 1975, Review editor Meyer Elkin editorialized on the language of family law:

Why do we continue to use the language of criminal law in family law? Is it primarily tradition that causes us to continue to use the old words in family law? Or is it something else? Is it a reflection of the prevailing ambivalence of this society which, on the one hand, tells people that divorce is okay, but by its actions, or lack of it, shows that many still do not accept the idea of divorce in a pair-oriented society? We need to develop new words that will alleviate stress on the divorcing family rather than add to stresses already present….Family law is entering a new period. There is now present an opportunity for introducing new practices and procedures—and words that will represent the combined expertise of both law and the behavioral sciences who, after all, are equally concerned and have similar goals regarding the strengthening of the family. Let us now start the search for the words.

AFCC members and courts continued to lead the way in developing new services throughout the 1970s. In 1973, the Los Angeles Conciliation Court began a pilot program to mediate custody and visitation disputes. Divorce education workshops for parents began to emerge in several AFCC member courts.

Ten years after its inception, the Conference of Conciliation Courts had members in 15 states and several Canadian provinces, and 34 members on its board of directors. The 1973 annual conference was held in Chicago, the theme was Alternatives to Divorce. Regional conferences were also being added to AFCC’s list of professional offerings, bringing the organization closer to its members and tailoring conferences that addressed issues germane to the region.

The Conference of Conciliation Courts became increasingly interdisciplinary and international. Conferences featured presenters from Canada, England, New Zealand and Australia, and Review articles included contributions from judges, lawyers, academics, clergy and behavioral scientists. In 1976, the Conference of Conciliation Courts changed its name to Association of Family Conciliation Courts.

In 1978, AFCC held its first annual conference outside of the United States in Vancouver, British Columbia. Concepts such as family self-determination and mediation were the subjects of discussion. Gender issues were emerging. The Divorce Experience, a didactic orientation program for divorcing parents and their children, was introduced.

The late 1970s marked the beginning of a new organizational trend. AFCC members in California came together to form the first AFCC chapter. In the years to follow, the AFCC California Chapter would be joined by chapters in Alberta, Arizona, Australia, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

By the end of the 1970s, AFCC membership had grown to 900 members, and the board of directors had expanded to 50 members. Professional networking opportunities were highly valued by conference attendees, as was the opportunity for camaraderie between the association’s members who participated in pre- and post-conference trips to Alaska, New Zealand, Australia, England and Sweden.

The association was also becoming a business. AFCC’s first executive director was California counselor, Frank Bailey, whose main job was to keep a current list of the members and put out the AFCC newsletter, keeping members apprised of association activities. The AFCC office moved to Portland, Oregon, when Professor Jay Folberg became executive director (1975-1980).

In 1981, AFCC offices moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, when Nova Law School Professor Laurence Hyde was named executive director (1981-1983). In 1983, the National Center of State Courts in Williamsburg, Virginia, was contracted to serve as secretariat of the organization, and Stanley Cohen, a sociology professor at the University of Oregon Health Sciences and a founding member of AFCC, was named executive director, serving in that role until 1988. AFCC’s headquarters moved back to Portland, Oregon, in 1984, when the university and Dr. Cohen assumed the administration of the association.

Publications and pamphlets such as Parents Are Forever and Guide for Stepparents were being developed and offered for sale. Through Dr. Cohen’s efforts, the association secured a grant to produce an award-winning film, A Family Affair, narrated by actor Edward Asner, on family violence. The Children’s Bureau of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare awarded AFCC a research grant to study the effects of mediation on custody and visitation disputes in courts in Connecticut, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Interest in court-connected reconciliation counseling was diminishing, and joint custody, mandatory mediation, domestic violence and stepfamilies were becoming central issues. The legislation boom had begun, and it was moving in a strong wave from California across the United States.

The AFCC Mediation Committee hosted three national symposia on mediation standards between 1982 and 1984. Representatives of more than thirty organizations participated in developing the first set of Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation. By the late 1980s, mediation of custody and visitation disputes was mandatory in jurisdictions in 38 states.

Separated and divorcing parents were becoming a new constituency. Fathers were organizing groups to advocate for their parenting interests, and mothers were drawing attention to the economics of divorce and child support arrearages. AFCC conferences featured children and parents recounting their divorce and custody disputes, and the resolution of these disputes through mediation and joint custody.

Meyer Elkin’s eloquent editorials in the Review continued to capture the spirit and commitment of AFCC members.  In the 20th Anniversary issue, he noted the ripple effect that the association had on the field of divorce:

Cast a Pebble in the Pond

Let all of us, in our own unique way, recommit ourselves to the search for the pebbles of change that can be cast into the social pond. Let us create a divorce process that recycles divorce pain into new patterns of personal and familial growth, which, in turn, will also strengthen our entire society. Let us protect our children from the unnecessary hazards of the divorce experience so that they, like their parents, can be strengthened by divorce rather than defeated by it. And let us never forget that if the lights go out in our children's eyes, be they children of divorce or any other children, we will all live in darkness.

Immediately preceding AFCC’s 20th Anniversary, AFCC changed its name again. Although the term “conciliation court” was unfamiliar to many members, it was also a part of AFCC’s heritage. In an effort to bridge these interests, the new name of the organization became the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

In 1983, AFCC elected its first Canadian president, Hon. John VanDuzer from Hamilton, Ontario, and the association’s conference was held in Toronto. AFCC conferences had become major events by this time, demanding hundreds of hours of volunteer members’ time and effort. Conferences had grown to five days including pre-conference institutes, committee meetings, and board meetings, in addition to plenary sessions and multiple workshops. The number of pamphlets and publications produced by AFCC was also growing, and AFCC began to offer videotapes on custody resolution counseling and divorce.

By the mid-1980s, family court service programs were feeling the strains of the economy, and AFCC membership leveled off. The use of custody evaluations, overshadowed by the advent of mediation, was re-emerging as custody disputes were becoming more complex and high conflict families were challenging the capacity of the court system.

The 25-year mark in AFCC’s history was significant. AFCC returned to its roots in Los Angeles for its annual conference. The conference theme, Helping Children and Families—The Best of AFCC, set the stage for the children and family member participants from the conference ten years earlier to return to provide a retrospective look at divorce and its impact.

AFCC conferences had developed a loyal following as members planned their vacations around conferences, and their spouses and children became like an extended family. The friendships and kinships between members continued to grow as members kept in touch between conferences, corresponded, traveled together, shared family events, laughed and grieved together.

As AFCC completed its first quarter century, some significant changes took place. Meyer Elkin retired as editor of the Review, turning the journal over to co-editors Stanley Cohen and Hugh McIsaac, Los Angeles, California. It seemed significant that two were chosen to replace one. The Review Editorial Board had grown from eight to 38 members from around the world, and individual issues of the Review were now more than 80 pages in length. Putting out a journal of this size had become more than a cottage industry, and in 1990 Sage Publications took over publishing and marketing responsibilities for the Review. In 1988, Stanley Cohen retired as executive director and Ann Milne, a long-standing AFCC member, became executive director in 1989. The administrative office moved to its present home in Madison, Wisconsin. At the end of the decade, AFCC membership was approaching 1,200.

As AFCC entered the 1990s, its growing membership was being professionally challenged by increasingly difficult family issues.  The Review and conferences served as a forum to explore the many controversies emerging in the field.  The 1989 annual conference in Chicago featured a pre-conference symposium on mediation and domestic abuse. In 1992, AFCC received a $200,000 grant from the State Justice Institute to collaborate with The Urban Institute in Washington, DC, to study the impact of mediation on custody disputes involving allegations of domestic violence. 

The challenges posed by high-conflict families were front-and-center issues for most courts, and AFCC members led the way in developing new processes and techniques for working with these challenging families. AFCC continued to serve as a catalyst for the dissemination of information through conferences, training programs, publications, and videotapes. Parenting coordination, domestic abuse, mediation-arbitration, collaborative law, supervised visitation, custody evaluation, and child protection and dependency mediation began to appear on conference programs as members searched for effective family dispute resolution processes.

AFCC celebrated its 30th Anniversary in New Orleans in May 1993. The conference theme and opening night videotape, The Economic Impact of Divorce, provided an opportunity for more than 700 delegates to look at the big-picture impact of divorce and celebrate the largest conference attendance to date.

In 1993, the association received a major grant from the Hewlett Foundation that enabled AFCC to add additional staff and absorb some of the work of AFCC’s many hard-working volunteer members. Conference planning was centralized in the administrative office and AFCC began to offer additional training and consulting services.

In 1997, AFCC partnered with Australia’s World Congress, Inc., to host the Second World Congress on Family Law and the Rights of Children and Youth. Chaired by AFCC’s first non-North American president, Hon. Alastair Nicholson, Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia, the three-year planning effort involved hundreds of AFCC volunteers and culminated with nearly 1,500 delegates from more than 50 countries participating in the five-day extravaganza. The lengthy list of luminaries included First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who served as honorary chairperson; renowned pediatrician and scholar, Dr. T. Barry Brazelton; San Francisco Mayor Hon. Willie Brown; Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta; and former US Congresswoman Hon. Patricia Schroeder.

By 1998, mediation was established as a professional field of practice. AFCC reconvened the Symposium on Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation, which last met in 1984, in response to concerns about training, certification and regulation. Representatives of more than twenty organizations worked over the course of three years to create a revised set of model standards. The Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation were subsequently adopted by AFCC, the American Bar Association, the Association for Conflict Resolution, and numerous state and local mediation organizations.

AFCC received a second organizational development grant from the Hewlett Foundation in the late 1990s and used it to focus on the future: surveying its members regarding their needs, developing a website, and taking stock of its organizational structure and capacity to move forward. AFCC initiated a revision of its bylaws and governance procedures, and the AFCC Board of Directors was downsized from 50 members to 19.

The last decade of the twentieth century featured continued growth for AFCC. The number of AFCC members increased to nearly 1,700 during the 1990s, and conference attendance also grew. AFCC’s quarterly journal, now named Family Court Review and edited by Professor Andrew Schepard, found a home at Hofstra Law School, accompanied by a student editorial staff.

The twenty-first century would see unprecedented growth for AFCC, beginning with one of the largest conferences in AFCC history. Nearly 750 delegates joined AFCC for its 37th Annual Conference in New Orleans in May 2000, as US Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila Wellstone, a well-known advocate against domestic violence, provided the keynote address.

The New Orleans conference theme, Alienation, Access, and Attachment, provided the opportunity for members of the Northern California Task Force on the Alienated Child, led by Dr. Janet Johnston and Dr. Joan Kelly, to share their reformulation of Richard Gardner’s controversial parental alienation syndrome. The work of the task force was then published in what would become a landmark special issue of Family Court Review.

While AFCC staff and many members were in route to New York for the 2001 Regional Conference, terrorists struck the World Trade Center on September 11. The conference was cancelled, but the AFCC spirit was not daunted by these events. With the support of AFCC New York members and Hofstra Law School, the conference was held five months later, and AFCC members worldwide contributed money and support to help the organization weather this challenge.

In 2002, Ann Milne retired and Peter Salem, associate director since 1994, became executive director of AFCC. In 2003, AFCC celebrated its 40th Anniversary in Ottawa, Ontario; twenty years after AFCC’s first Canadian President Hon. John VanDuzer organized the AFCC conference in Toronto. Justice VanDuzer was honored for his contributions at the Ottawa conference.

In 2004, the AFCC Board of Directors passed a strategic plan calling for the association to focus on initiatives to influence the field of practice. A series of special projects resulted, among them:

• AFCC was awarded a contract to develop and evaluate a researched-based screening instrument for the Connecticut Court Support Services Division. The resulting Family Civil Intake Assessment Screen Project was a finalist for the Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award.
   
• AFCC President Hon. George Czutrin appointed a Parenting Coordination Task Force in 2003 to take the lead in the development of this emerging new field. The task force produced the first national set of guidelines for parenting coordination, adopted by the AFCC Board of Directors in May 2005.
   
• AFCC President Leslye Hunter appointed a Task Force on Model Standards of Practice for Child Custody Evaluation in 2004 to revise the AFCC Model Standards for Child Custody Evaluation. The AFCC Board of Directors adopted the Model Standards in May 2006.
   
• AFCC partnered with Hofstra Law School Center for Children, Families and the Law on the Family Law Education Reform Project (FLER), an effort to close the gap between the teaching and practice of family law. FLER systematically included hundreds of interdisciplinary family court professionals in the project and hosted the first AFCC-sponsored conference at the Johnson Foundation’s prestigious Wingspread Conference Center. The FLER Report was endorsed by numerous national organizations and the October 2006 issue of Family Court Review is dedicated to the FLER project. The project is ongoing and a website has been developed to support skills-based, interdisciplinary teaching of family law classes.
   
• AFCC partnered with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to co-sponsor a think tank on Domestic Violence and Family Courts, AFCC’s second Wingspread Conference. The think tank focused on issues of differentiation in domestic violence and participants included leading judges, legal and social science scholars, domestic violence advocates and interdisciplinary family court and family law practitioners. The July 2008 issue of Family Court Review is dedicated to this project. The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and the Center for Association Leadership honored AFCC with the 2010 Associations Advance America Award for this project.

AFCC conferences have remained a springboard for new initiatives; however they have faced challenges in the first decade of this century, beginning with the cancellation of the New York Regional conference in September 2001. The 2003 annual conference in Ottawa contended with the SARS outbreak in Ontario, and the 2006 annual conference had to be relocated from New Orleans to Tampa, Florida, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. AFCC and its members have been resilient. Attendance records were shattered with more than 900 attending the 44th Annual Conference in Washington, DC in 2007, and more than 1,000 participating in the 45th Annual Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia in 2008, including record-setting numbers of Canadian and international participants.

AFCC signed on with Wiley-Blackwell to publish Family Court Review beginning in 2005. Dr. Janet Johnston was associate editor from 2004-2010, followed by Dr. Robert Emery in 2010. Family Court Review readership exploded with the addition of online access.

The last months of 2008 brought a financial crisis, which would negatively impact many organizations and AFCC members. Courts saw their budgets slashed as states scrambled to deal with budget shortfalls. Those in private practice were impacted, as clients tightened their belts or were no longer able to pay for services. In response, the AFCC Board of Directors initiated a price freeze on membership and member rates for conference registration that was ultimately extended through 2011. In the intervening years, AFCC fared well. Membership continued to grow and conference attendance remained high with over 1,000 participants attending annual conferences.

In 2009, the AFCC Board of Directors continued focus on initiatives to influence the field of practice and collaboration with other organizations. Among the special projects that resulted:

• The Future of Court ADR: Mediation and Beyond, a collaboration between AFCC, Marquette Law School Dispute Resolution Program, and Resolution Systems Institute, resulted in a two-day symposium/think tank at Marquette Law School in September 2011. The results of this meeting were published in a special issue of Marquette Law Review, Spring 2012, Volume 95.
   
• Closing the Gap: Research, Practice, Policy and Shared Parenting grew out of a longstanding debate about parenting time and decision making after separation and divorce. Colleagues with diverse and, in some instances, contrary perspectives examined barriers to use of research in family law practice and policy, and attempted to identify areas of consensus and clarify differences. The resulting issues of Family Court Review, conference proceedings, and think tank report are available on the AFCC website.

By 2010, AFCC membership increased to more than 4,200 members in 19 countries. The number of AFCC chapters continued to grow, and the first Canadian chapter, Ontario, was formed. The AFCC e-newsletter (AFCC eNEWS), the parenting coordination listserv (the AFCC Parenting Coordination Network), and AFCC’s entry into social media (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) further expanded the association’s reach.

The Center for Excellence in Family Court Practice, a place on the AFCC website for service initiatives and sponsored projects, was established in 2011. The reports, guidelines and related work of many aforementioned projects can be found there.

AFCC collaborated with the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) in 2011 to hold a joint conference. The 2011 Conference on Advanced Issues in Child Custody: Evaluation, Litigation and Settlement was held in Philadelphia. This first joint conference sold out and the successful collaboration now occurs biennially in odd numbered years, offering advanced level interdisciplinary training to legal, mental health and other professionals.  

 

In 2013, AFCC celebrated the 50th anniversary of the association. The annual conference was fittingly held in Los Angeles, the birthplace of the organization. Twenty-one former AFCC presidents attended the conference and a celebratory dinner hosted by the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine School of Law.

The 50th anniversary was an incredible milestone not only for the organization itself, but also for Family Court Review. The January 2013 issue provided readers with insightful articles focusing on the progression of the journal and the field of family law.

 

AFCC members all share in an impressive legacy passed down from its founding members and the many others who have served AFCC with fierce dedication. From a small group of court counselors and judges, AFCC has grown to a robust association of more than 5,000 members representing more than a dozen disciplines in 24 countries.

In the future, AFCC members will continue to lead the field. The agenda has changed from reconciliation in the 1960s, to divorce with dignity in the 1970s, to mediation in the 1980s, to working with high conflict and violent families in the 1990s, to shared parenting in the 2000s—always reflecting the diversity and complexity of contemporary families. Unrepresented litigants, same-sex parents, never-married parents, dependency mediation, intimate partner violence, parenting coordination, custody evaluations, non-residential parents, relocation, alienated children and family preservation are among the present and future challenges for AFCC members.

Looking back over six decades, although the issues facing families and professionals may change, one thing remains constant: AFCC members continue to share an impressive commitment to families and children cultivated by the founders of the association and instilled in its members and leadership since 1963. The vision has endured, and generations of families have benefited.