Janet M. Bowermaster

Professor of Law

J.D. University of Illinois [cum laude]
M.S. University of Illinois 
[educational psychology]
B.S. Huntington College [education]

Courses Taught:  Torts I & II, Children and the Law, Domestic Violence Seminar, Family Law

Involved with drafting and negotiating legislation dealing with family law and domestic violence issues in California, Dean Bowermaster co-authored an amicus brief in the O.J. Simpson custody appeal. She collaborated with psychologist Nancy Johnson, California Western class of 1998, in an empirical study of domestic violence and child custody in the San Diego Family Courts. Preliminary results of the study were presented at the International Conference on Children Exposed to Family Violence and at the Western Psychological Association Conference.

Former academic and research director of the Center for Creative Problem Solving at California Western, Bowermaster is a member of the San Diego Domestic Violence Council and a founding member of the Stopping Gender Violence Task Force at the First Unitarian Church of San Diego. She has provided training on issues of child custody and domestic violence for such diverse groups as battered women's centers, appointment panel minors' counsel, and Immigration and Naturalization Service officers.

After graduating from law school, Bowermaster engaged in private legal practice in Indiana and Illinois.

Selected Publications

• "Legal Presumptions and the Role of Mental Health Professionals in Child Custody Proceedings," 40 Duquesne Law Review 265 (2002).
• "Relocation Restrictions: An Opportunity for Custody Abuse,"
  4 Synergy 4 (1999/2000).
• "Custody Disputes Involving Domestic Violence: Making Children's Needs a Priority," 50 Juvenile & Family Court Journal 1 (1999)  (with psychologists Stephen Doyne, Reid Meloy, Donald Dutton, and Peter Jaffe; and attorney, Stephen Temko).
• "Relocation Custody Disputes Involving Domestic Violence,"
  46 University of Kansas Law Review 433 (1998).
• "The Relocation of Children and Custodial Parents: Public Policy, Past and Present," 30 Family Law Quarterly 245 (1996) (with Professor Carol Bruch).
• "Sympathizing with Solomon: Choosing Between Parents in a Mobile Society," 31 Journal of Family Law 791 (1992-93).
  
  

Class Webpage:

•  TORTS I
  
•  FAMILY LAW