Faculty Directory

Dana E. Prescott

Part-Time Faculty

Profile

Dana E. Prescott has been licensed to practice in Maine and Massachusetts since 1983 and is a partner with Prescott, Jamieson, & Murphy Law Group LLC, Saco, Maine. He is a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Attorneys and the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. He was awarded an MSW from Boston College and PhD in social work from Simmons College. Dr. Prescott holds an instructor appointment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is adjunct faculty at Boston College School of Social Work. He is a frequent consultant, writer, and speaker on professional ethics and policy related to expert and forensic roles, family law and practice, and judicial systems. He is a rostered guardian ad litem and currently serves as Chair of Maine’s GAL Review Board.

Selected Publications

Prescott, D.E., & Tennies, D.A. (2018). The lawyer as guardian ad litem: Should “status” make expert opinions “all-in” and trump “gatekeeping” functions by family courts? Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 30, 201-226. 

Prescott, D.E., & Gary Debele, Evolving family systems and shifting ethical conundrums:  Consequences for lawyers in adoption and non-married parentage proceedings. Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 30, 127-176.

Prescott, D.E. (2017). The New Phoenix: Maine’s innovative standards for guardians ad litem. Maine Law Review, 69, 67-108. 

Prescott, D.E. (2016). Forensic experts and family courts: Science or privilege-by-license?  Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 28, 521-552.

Fadgen, T., & Prescott, D.E. (2016). Do the best interests of the child end at the Nation’s shores?: Immigration, state courts, and children in the United States? Journal of the  American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 28, 359-390.

Prescott, D.E. (2014). Inconvenient truths: Facts and frictions in defense of guardians ad litem for children. Maine Law Review, 67, 43-71.

Prescott, D.E. (2013). Social workers as “experts” in the family court system: Is evidence-based practice a missing link or host-created knowledge? Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 10(5), 466-481.

Prescott, D.E. (2012). Judicial decision making, personality theory, and child custody conflict: Can heuristics better predict a difference between parents who do and those who don’t? Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy, 11(2), 185-222.

Prescott, D.E. (2008). COSAs and psychopharmalogical interventions: Informed consent and a child’s right to self-determination. Journal of Law and Family Studies, 11(1), 97-112.

Prescott, D.E. (2007). The act of lawyering and the art of communication: An essay on families-in-crisis, the adversarial tradition, and the social work model. Legal Ethics, 10(2), 176-192.