Justine Rakich-Kelly graduated from Western Connecticut State University, cum laude, with a BS in Justice and Law Administration and earned her law degree from University of Connecticut School of Law in 1991. She worked for a number of years in private practice focusing on family and juvenile law. She became a staff attorney and then a managing attorney of the family unit at Statewide Legal Services in 1998. In 2000, she accepted the position of Executive Director at The Children’s Law Center of Connecticut and has been in that role since.As Executive Director, Attorney Rakich-Kelly has presented at numerous conferences including a joint conference of the American Bar Association and the American Psychological Association in 2008, where she introduced the Families in Transition program and discussed the importance of a mental health perspective in the legal representation of children. Justine served on several Commissions and Committees, including a sub-committee on the Governor’s Commission on Divorce, Custody, and Children in 2003; and the Governor’s Commission on Judicial Reform in 2006. She currently serves as a 2016 Governor’s appointee to the Statewide Advisory Council on Children and Families and also serves on the Standing Committee on Guardians Ad Litem and Attorneys for Minor Children in Family Matters. In 2013, she co-authored a comprehensively written chapter in the handbook A Practical Guide to Divorce in Connecticut entitled “Representing Children in Family Court Custody and Visitation Disputes” with CLC Deputy Director Randa Hojaiban. She is 2019’s recipient of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Charles J. Parker Legal Services Award. Attorney Rakich-Kelly is married with three children, two step-children, and two grandchildren.