Ian (JD 07) and Lauren Alperstein (JD 08) are full-time attorneys with Laufer & Laufer, PA and Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, respectively. Ian represents insurance carriers, while Lauren works in family and matrimonial law.

They have also picked up another job as parents to a son born in January.

Lauren is currently on maternity leave, but will return to work this month. Her work includes counseling and defending clients, as well as volunteering with the family law section of The Florida Bar and the Broward County Bar Association, and the young lawyers section of the Broward County Bar Association.

While balancing her busy schedule and family life has not been easy, Lauren said the balance is made possible with the support of her firm.

“I love the people I work with. I am really fortunate to be part of a great firm and a great office. We are one big family working to better our clients’ lives,” she said.

Ian is busy as a litigator for insurance carriers in first-party insurance disputes. His daily practice involves representing clients through the court process — work that continually keeps him interested in the nuances of insurance law.

“Each day presents a new opportunity and new tasks that challenge me and broaden my area of expertise in my area of practice,” said Ian.

But prior to law school, neither Ian nor Lauren expected to be working in their present fields.

Lauren earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and international affairs from George Washington University in 2005. But at UF Law, she was drawn to family law.

“Given my personal background — my parents got divorced when I was in elementary school — I always was interested in family law. In law school, however, I was torn between international business law and family law,” she said. She credits Professor Nancy Dowd’s family law class, her externship with the family law judges at the Alachua County courthouse, and her involvement with Gator TeamChild for solidifying her decision to pursue a professional career in family law.

Meanwhile, Ian received his bachelor’s in economics from UF in 2000. And when he came to UF to study law, he did not plan to become a litigator.

“I went to law school thinking I would become a transactional attorney. However, the classes I enjoyed the most in law school involved litigation,” he said.  Ian listed trial practice, evidence, civil procedure, and insurance law class as the inspirations for his current career path.

Despite their differing career interests, Ian and Lauren met at UF Law through their involvement with the Jewish Law Students Association.

“We both attended a Jewish Law Students Association function and then kept on bumping into each other in the reading room of the library,” said Ian. “One thing led to another, and we started dating.”

After dating throughout law school and into their first few years as new attorneys, the couple married in 2010. Since then, the Alpersteins have balanced their busy schedules with their expanding family.

“Given the demands and stressors of our jobs, it can be hard and challenging at times,” she said. “However, we both understand the demands expected of us and really value the time we have together at home. We make it a point to try our best not to talk about work when we come home, but understand when we each have to work late at night or on the weekends to complete our tasks.”

While both admit that finding time to work as an attorney and have a family is a challenge, Lauren maintains that a balance can be struck with a goal in mind.

“Take it one step at a time,” said Lauren. “Do not worry about what everyone else is doing.”

Hina Jilani, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, speaks at the sixth annual Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The lecture is tomorrow at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180. It is free and open to the public.

Jilani’s work in the area of children’s rights has included working for legal aid, proposing and drafting reformative legislation, and creating and implementing programs that protect the human rights of disadvantaged groups. She is responsible for establishing the first all-women’s law firm in Pakistan in 1981. According to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Jilani has been under 24-hour-a-day surveillance by Pakistan since 1996 because of her activism in women, children and human rights movements.

Jilani held the position of special representative of the United Nations secretary general on human rights defenders from 2000 to 2008.

In 2006, Jilani was appointed to the UN’s fact-finding commission on Darfur, Sudan, and in 2009, was appointed to the UN’s fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict. She is also affiliated with the Carter Center and the UN Conference on Women. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Editor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement by The Lawyer Awards in London.

The Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law was made possible by an endowment supported by Frank G. Finkbeiner (JD 72) and T.W. Ackert (JD 72).

Walter Weyrauch, who passed away in 2008, was a distinguished professor of law at UF Law. Originally from Germany, Weyrauch joined the UF Law faculty in 1957 as associate professor. He became professor in 1960, was Clarence J. TeSelle Professor 1989-1994, and became Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in 1994 and distinguished professor in 1998. He was named an honorary professor of law at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Germany, and was visiting faculty at the University of California, Berkeley; Rutgers University School of Law and University of Frankfurt.

“I’m honored to be selected to give this year’s Weyrauch Lecture” said Professor Cahn. “Professor Weyrauch was a distinguished teacher, scholar and intellectual role model in numerous fields, and his work in family law has inspired the topic of my lecture.”

Professor Cahn is the John Theodore Fey Research Professor of Law at The George Washington University School of Law. She is a senior fellow at the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and is a member of the Yale Cultural Cognition Project. Professor Cahn has written numerous law review articles on family law, and has co-authored several books. Her current projects include Test Tube Families: Why the Fertility Markets Need Legal Regulation (NYU Press, 2009) as well as book with Professor June Carbone, Red Families v. Blue Families (Oxford University Press, 2009). Prior to joining the faculty at GW in 1993, Cahn practiced with Hogan & Harston in Washington, D.C. and as staff attorney with Philadelphia’s Community Legal Services. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. from Princeton University.

Nancy Dowd, the UF Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law and co-director of the Center on Children and Families, said Cahn’s work in family law is amazing and that her lecture will reflect her scholarship.

“Her work touches on some of the hot button topics of family law today, and she provides a richly nuanced approach to difficult topics,” said Professor Dowd. “The topic of her talk is “Family Classes,” the ways in which families are not always treated equally by the law.”