It is our great pleasure to introduce our new IntLawGrrls contributor.

Melissa Kucinski is an international family law expert with her principal office in Washington, D.C.  She owns the boutique international law firm of MK Family Law, PLLC.  She served as a consultant to the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 2013 and has written a dozen articles published in more than one language on international children’s issues and mediation of complex cross-border custody and child abduction cases. Melissa has presented at over 30 national and international conferences on international children’s issues and mediation. Melissa has traveled to Tokyo twice for meetings on the Hague Child Abduction Convention – first in 2014 as part of a U.S. delegation and again in 2019, at the invitation of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Melissa has been a long-standing member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law.  She served as a private sector advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the Hague’s Sixth Special Commission meeting in 2011 to review the practical operation of two international children’s treaties, and she attended the Seventh Special Commission meeting in 2017 with International Social Service (ISS).   She chaired ISS’s efforts to create a global network of international family mediation resources. 

Melissa has served in a variety of capacities within the American Bar Association (ABA), including past chair of an International Family Mediation Task Force, and chair of two separate international family law committees.  She is currently co-chair of the ABA International Family Law Committee and co-chair of the New York State Bar Association’s International Family Law Committee. Melissa has taught the International Family Law course at the George Washington University School of Law since 2010.  She is a fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers.  Her book, A Practical Handbook for the Child’s Attorney: Effectively Representing Children in Custody Cases, included a chapter on representing children in complex international abduction and relocation cases.  Her newest book, Family Law Across Borders: Cases and Comments was released in 2021 by West Academic.

Heartfelt welcome!