Martha Stone
Martha Stone is Founder and Special Counsel of the Center for Children’s Advocacy. CCA is a non-profit legal office representing at risk children and youth. Prior to founding CCA in 1997, Martha served as Associate Director of Children’s Rights, Inc., a national organization engaged in foster care litigation throughout the United States; and for 18 years previously, she was Legal Director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union. Martha was responsible for growing CCA from a one person organization to a civil rights organization of 13 attorneys and 26 staff, providing legal representation to children and youth in the child welfare, health, juvenile justice, education and immigration systems. She has brought class action lawsuits resulting in Consent Decrees involving DCF (Juan F.), CT juvenile detention centers, and access to community-based mental health services for the juvenile justice population (Emily J.). She is lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Sheff v. O’Neill, the Hartford school desegregation case, which has spanned 33 years. She has been an Adjunct Professor at the UConn School of Law, where she has taught a course in child advocacy.
Martha is the recipient of many awards for distinguished service including the Gault Guardian Award, Division of Public Defender Services; Community Partner Award, Capitol Region Education Council; NAACP Wilber G. Smith Award, Excellence in Civil Rights Advocacy Award; CT. Bar Association Charles Parker Legal Services Award, Bank of America Local Hero Award, Champion of Children Award from the Village for Families and Children. She was also named to the “Fifty Most Influential” List in Hartford Magazine. She received a JD and LLM from Georgetown University Law Center.
