Barbara Atwood

Professor Atwood is the Mary Anne Richey Professor of Law Emerita and Co-Director of the Family and Juvenile Law Certificate Program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. After graduating from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1976, she clerked for the late Mary Anne Richey, United States District Judge for the District of Arizona, and then worked as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. She taught at the University of Houston Law Center from 1981 to 1986 and returned to Arizona to join the University of Arizona law faculty in 1986. Professor Atwood's scholarship explores topics at the intersection of civil procedure and family law, with a particular focus on issues of voice and representation for marginalized groups. She has spoken at national and international conferences on child representation, child's voice, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and private ordering in family law. Her books include Children, Tribes, and States:  Adoption and Custody Conflicts Over American Indian Children (2010) and A Courtroom of Her Own:  The Life and Work of Judge Mary Anne Richey (1998). Professor Atwood was appointed to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 2006 by then-Governor Janet Napolitano and continues to serve as a Uniform Law Commissioner. She is currently the chair of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Family Laws and was an Adviser on the ALI’s Restatement of Children and the Law project. Professor Atwood was appointed Judge Pro-Tem of the Tohono O'odham Nation in 2013. 

Curriculum Vitae

SSRN Published Papers

Representative Publications

• Standing Matters: Brackeen, Article III, and the Lure of the Merits, 23 J. App. Pract. & Pro. 105 (2023).  
• Cohabitants’ Economic Remedies: The U.S. Approach, 45 Hous. J. Int’l L. 191 (2022) (with Naomi Cahn).  
• Third-Party Custody, Parental Liberty, and Children's Interests, 43 FAM. ADVOCATE 48 (2021) (Issue 4).  
• Marriage as Gatekeeper: The Misguided Reliance on Marital Status for Third-Party Standing, 59 Fam. Ct. Rev. 971 (2020).  
• The New UFLAA: Providing Needed Standards for Efficiency and Fairness, 39 Family Advocate, Spring 2017, at 38.
• Hard Facts, Muddled Law:  Deciphering the Baby Veronica Decision, 93 B.U. L. Rev. Annex 3 (2013).
• A New Uniform Law for Premarital and Marital Agreements, 46 Fam. L.Q. 313 (2012) (co-author, with Brian H. Bix).
• Marital Contracts and the Meaning of Marriage, 54 Ariz. L. Rev. 11 (2012).
• Representing Children Who Can't or Won't Direct Counsel: Best Interests Lawyering or No Lawyer at All?, 53 Ariz. L. Rev. 381 (2011).
• Children, Tribes, and States: Adoption and Custody Conflicts Over American Indian Children (2010).
• Achieving Permanency for American Indian and Alaska Native Children: Lessons from Tribal Traditions, 37 Capital U. L. Rev. 239 (2008).
• The Voice of the Indian Child: Strengthening the Indian Child Welfare Act Through Children's Participation, 50 Ariz. L. Rev. 127 (2008).
• Complete List of Publications

Education

Admitted to Practice

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