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12/13/2022 Show #70Tonight's Guest Is Richard Ducote, An attorney licensed in Louisiana (1978) and Pennsylvania(2009), has been one of the nation’s leading child abuse/domestic violence litigatorsand law reformers for 43 years. He received a B.S. in psychology from Tulane in1974. Immediately following his law school graduation from Loyola in New Orleansin 1978, which he earned while serving as a juvenile probation officer in theJefferson Parish Juvenile Court, he created a specialized program to provide andtrain attorneys for abused and neglected children. That project, which developed theTulane University School of Law Juvenile Law Clinic, was one of only four in thecountry nationally recognized by the federal government for its innovative courtimprovements. In that project, he personally represented over 100 abused andneglected children.In Louisiana during the early 1980’s, he created a special project in theLouisiana foster care system to free more children for adoption, and as an appointedspecial district attorney in 19 parishes, he tried child abuse/ termination of parentalrights cases in 40 courts. Through his efforts in the courtroom, social service agencyoffices, and the legislature, the Louisiana foster care system for the first time movedhundreds of forgotten children into adoptive homes. In 1984, he began hisnationwide focus on complex child custody cases involving domestic violence andchild abuse. In 1991, he drafted for successful enactment the Louisiana Post-Separation Family Violence Relief Act (La. R.S. 9:361-369), the first state lawbarring abusive parents from serving as custodians, and forcing them to pay all costsand attorney’s fees. This law, which has been called model legislation by the HarvardLaw Review, has been replicated in many states and foreign