Amy Applegate: Maurer School of Law: Indiana University Bloomington

Biography

Professor Applegate is admitted to practice law in Indiana and the District of Columbia. She is a registered domestic relations mediator in Indiana. Her pro bono work has included mediations, guardian ad litem (GAL) appointments, representation of court-appointed special advocates, and protective order cases.

Applegate currently teaches Indiana Law’s mediation theory and practice courses, guiding students to become registered domestic relations mediators in Indiana through the Domestic Relations Mediation Course and the Viola J. Taliaferro Family and Children Mediation Clinic. In this program, students provide pro bono mediation services to indigent and low-income litigants in disputed custody, parenting-time, and other family law cases. Applegate and her students also collaborate in research and training with faculty and graduate students from IU’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and others to improve existing ADR processes, and develop additional interventions for high-conflict families. Applegate and colleagues have conducted research on family law issues, focusing on families experiencing parental divorce or separation. She and her colleagues have developed and tested the best methods of screening for a history of IPV in cases seeking family mediation, so that mediators are aware of IPV and consider the possible impact of IPV on the mediation process. They also conduct randomized controlled trials testing the effectiveness of family law interventions, including different mediation approaches (for both families with and without histories of IPV) and online parent education programs. Applegate has co-authored many publications in her research areas. Additionally, she has presented individually, as well as with her collaborators, in presentations at state, national, and international conferences about her research and practice areas. 

Prior to directing the mediation clinic, she taught the Child Advocacy Clinic, where she trained and supervised law students in GAL cases.

Applegate is the editor of the SSRN Law and Society Family Law, Relations and Dispute Resolution Journal, on the editorial board of the Family Court Review. She was the co-recipient of the 2017 Indiana University Outstanding Faculty Collaborative Research with one of her IU research collaborators. In 2012 and 2016, Applegate was the recipient of the Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Indiana State Bar Association’s Women in the Law Recognition Award. In 2005, she was co-recipient of the Randall T. Shepard Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Publico Service, a statewide award granted by the Indiana Pro Bono Commission. She earned the Leonard D. Fromm Public Interest Faculty Award at the Law School in 2003, 2005, and 2020.