Venkat Pillai
Founding partner
Takes the cases where the first hearing is days away, and the ones where the agency's plan has stalled.
Parents in child welfare cases
When the agency knocks, you are
still their parent.
Pillai & Vandyke is three lawyers in Rockville who stand with parents through a child welfare investigation or court case. We tell you what happens next, in plain words, before the next visit or hearing.
A note from the firm
One hard season, handled by people who stay.
A child welfare case moves fast and speaks in forms. A parent who has never been inside a courtroom is handed a plan, a deadline and a hearing date, sometimes in the same week. Much of our work is slowing the paper down until it makes sense.
We are three lawyers on purpose. The lawyer who takes your first call is the lawyer who sits beside you at the hearing, and the other two know your file well enough to step in. Whatever the next date is, you will not walk into it unprepared.
You are not asking for a favor. You are asking to be heard, and we know how to ask.
The lawyers
Read how we work before you call.
Every lawyer's page lists what they handle, where they are admitted and what a first call with them is like.
Leandra Vandyke
Partner
Handles custody and kinship cases, including relatives raising a child and parents closing an agency's file.
Gerard Tolland
Senior attorney
Handles divorce, separation and support for parents whose family is also in an agency's file.