Phelps, Christian J.

Janet Chaplan Pew, Esq. came to WanderPolo Law with 15 years experience as a lawyer in the New York Family Courts.  There, as an advocate for children, she had developed various areas of expertise: accessing benefits for needy families, securing assistance for children in foster care and in the juvenile justice system, and developing plans to find permanent loving homes for children whose families could not care for them.

Janet has taught as an adjunct professor at Montclair State University, teaching undergraduates both the basics of the legal system and advanced topics in juvenile advocacy.  Through her work with the American Bar Association Section of Litigation Task Force on Children, and working with local child advocacy groups, she helped develop training programs for volunteer attorneys who wished to assist children in child protective cases. She was a lecturer for the Law Guardian Training Program, New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, 3rd Department, based on her published work, Youth Perspectives on Lawyers’ Ethics: A Report of Seven Interviews, 64 Fordham L. Rev. 1763 (1996), which put new focus on the child client’s experience. 

Janet earned her law degree in 1988 from Temple University School of Law, and her Bachelor’s in 1984 from Yale College.  She was admitted to the New York Bar in 1989, where she appeared in both trial and appellate courts and in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. She was admitted to the New Jersey Bar in November 2010. She is a member of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys and the New Jersey Bar Association Elder Law Section.