Janet Sherwood is a California attorney in private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ms. Sherwood is an NACC certified Child Welfare Law Specialist (CWLS) and a certified Appellate Specialist through the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Specialization. She regularly sits as a judge pro tempore in dependency courts in San Francisco and Alameda Counties. Ms. Sherwood is also a consultant, trainer, and frequent speaker throughout the State of California on juvenile dependency issues.

Before entering private practice in 1991, Ms. Sherwood served as attorney for the California Department of Social Services for two years and a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California for eleven years. She now limits her practice to appellate representation in juvenile dependency issues. In the past, she represented children in the Marin County Juvenile Court for ten years. She has also represented parents and caregivers in the trial court.

Ms. Sherwood is the President of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Counsel for Children and is the Treasurer of Board of the Northern California Association of Counsel for Children. She is a founder, Board President, and Training Director for Advokids.

Ms. Sherwood is the author of California Juvenile Dependency Case Law Updates, 1991-2011, a compendium of California appellate decisions on juvenile dependency law. She is also the author of Representing the Child in Abuse & Neglect Cases, 31 ABA Family Advocate 28 (Winter 2009), co-author of Successful Appeals: Different Appellate Approaches to Children’s Continuously Changing Circumstances, 2009 NACC Children’s Law Manual Series 69, and author of the chapter on representing children in California Juvenile Dependency Practice (Cal. Cont. Ed. of the Bar, 2011 ed.).