Melissa A. Kucinski

Melissa A. Kucinski is an attorney who focuses her practice in the area of international family law. Ms. Kucinski has chaired several committees and task forces within the American Bar Association that relate to international family law and international family mediation. She previously consulted for the Hague Conference on Private International Law on the Hague Child Abduction and Hague Child Protection Conventions. Ms. Kucinksi is a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law, and is a member of the Uniform Law Commission’s Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Family Laws. She designed an advanced mediation training and trained mediators across the globe to handle complex cross-border custody and child abduction cases. Ms. Kucinski was invited to speak at the 5-year anniversary symposium celebrating Japan’s ratification of the Hague Child Abduction Convention by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has served on international delegations for the U.S. government and International Social Service on topics related to the Hague Child Abduction Convention and cross-border mediation. 

Ms. Kucinski is a seasoned author, writing the seminal handbook for practicing lawyers on representing children in their parents’ custody cases. She co-authored Family Law Across Borders for West Academic. She authored a chapter in a treatise on the Hague Conference’s work in international family mediation and numerous scholarly articles on international family law. 

Ms. Kucinski is admitted to practice in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and New York. She routinely serves as an expert on international family law matters, including parental child abduction cases.