Carlie Stanfill (JD ’25) Lifts Up Foster Youth with the Strength of Her Own Story

Inspired by a difficult childhood, recent Caruso School of Law graduate Carlie Stanfill arrived at Pepperdine with a clear purpose: to pursue a career devoted to helping children like herself. After her mother lost custody due to struggles with alcohol, Stanfill and her sisters spent several years in the foster care system. She recalls feeling confused and overlooked by the very adults and institutions meant to protect her.

“I was scared of everything—the judge, the courtroom, the bailiff. I really just had no understanding of the situation and felt like I didn't have a voice,” explains Stanfill.

It wasn’t until they were assigned a lawyer who took a genuine interest in guiding them through the process, that she finally felt less alone. Their attorney not only educated them on the process of reunification but also coached them on how to write meaningful letters to the judge and read them aloud in court. For the first time, Stanfill explains, they “felt included in the process.”

“We loved our mom and we wanted the judge to understand that she was a good person. We knew that she was struggling with addiction—a disease—and we wanted to express that to the judge with hopes of eventually reuniting with her,” says Stanfill. “No one had asked us that before we met our lawyer.”

In addition to helping reunite them with her mother, their lawyer encouraged them to pursue higher education and apply for scholarships designed for foster youth. These experiences were pivotal in shaping Stanfill’s career aspirations.

When deciding to go to Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Stanfill was drawn to the University’s open environment and mission to support students in their pursuit of servant leadership. Coming from a challenging past, Stanfill describes feeling immediately welcomed by the Pepperdine community and praises the University in helping shape and define her goals as a future legal professional.

“I wanted to go somewhere where my differences felt not only seen but embraced as well as celebrated,” says Stanfill. “Pepperdine accepted me for who I am and helped me harness where I wanted to go in my career.”

Today, with a law degree in hand, she is committed to advocating for foster youth. Following the results of her bar exam, Stanfill plans to serve as a staff attorney at the Children's Law Center (CLC) of California, an organization she has dedicated countless hours to since pursuing her law degree.

As an intern at the CLC, Stanfill’s role included conducting interviews with foster youth, including young adults in extended foster care, to understand their needs and desired outcomes. She explained the court process, ensured their voices were heard, and made informed requests on their behalf. Once certified, Stanfill made legal arguments under attorney supervision, participated in hearings, conducted home visits, and supported clients in various placements, including foster homes, group homes, juvenile halls, as well as with their biological families.

As Stanfill looks to the future, she hopes to help drive meaningful changes that would have profoundly impacted her own experience in the foster care system. She points to a Supreme Court case centered on prioritizing relative placements, or close family friends, over foster or group homes when a child is removed. Stanfill emphasizes the importance of this approach as inspired by the trauma from her own experience of spending a year in a children’s receiving home before entering foster care. She shares how such placements can lead to further emotional damage as well as long-term consequences like substance abuse or self-harm.

“It's a snowball effect that just leads to many terrible outcomes.” She adds, “There's this shift away from reunification, and I think that needs to be the main goal. Quite often these cases are not caused by deliberately bad people or bad parents. A lot of times it's people that just need help and support accessing resources.”