Michelle Burrell is the managing attorney of the Family Defense Practice of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem where she manages a staff of attorneys, social workers, and parent advocates who provide legal representation to indigent parents and family caregivers who have been accused of abuse and neglect in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. She has presented nationally on the intersection of race and poverty in the child welfare and criminal justice systems. Most notably, she presented at the ABA Parent Representation Conference in 2015 on the topic of “State Intrusion in the Age of Ferguson: Child Welfare as a Civil Rights Issue” and at the Women and Girls of Color Conference at Wake Forest University on the ways in which the child welfare system separates women from their families in much the same way that the criminal justice system separates men of color from their families.