Lisa Fischel-Wolovick

Lisa Fischel-Wolovick, JD, MSW is an attorney who has represented battered women for over thirty-five years. She is the author of numerous publications, including her upcoming book: Behind the Courthouse Doors: The Institutional Control of Children, Oxford Univ. Press, July 2026; and Traumatic Divorce and Separation: The impact of domestic violence and substance abuse in
custody and divorce, Oxford Univ. Press, 2018 and Battered Mothers and Children in the courts: A Lawyer’s View, published in the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies.

In June 2024, Ms. Fischel-Wolovick was a delegate at the Hague Forum on Child Abduction and Domestic Violence in Johannesburg, South Africa. In the 1990s, she also helped to organize the first Criminal Court that specialized in domestic violence in New York State. Ms. Fischel-Wolovick teaches Family Violence, Child Maltreatment, and the Psychology of the Victim, at the City University of New York, in John Jay College’s graduate program in Forensic Psychology. She is on the Board of the National Family Court Watch Project.

Ms.Fischel-Wolovick is a frequent speaker on domestic violence, child custody, and trauma at national and international conferences and judicial trainings. Before becoming an attorney, she obtained her master’s in social work and worked in
medical social work, which included advocacy and counseling for battered women. She has provided consultation for attorneys, mental health professionals, and the judiciary on custody, domestic violence, and trauma.