Dr. Kenneth Herman, founded Children and Law Program
When judges faced a thorny decision about the future of a child involved in a custody or protection case, they frequently turned to Kenneth D. Herman, trained as a lawyer and psychologist, for advice.
"If he said we can leave this kid with his mother, she's on the road to recovery, I went home and didn't worry about the kid," said Christina Harms, a judge in Norfolk Probate and Family Court. "I just think he had unerring judgment."
Founder of the Children and Law Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Herman died Sunday at Emerson Hospital in Concord of metastatic cancer. He was 59.
Over the past two decades, he served as a guardian ad litem on hundreds, if not thousands, of cases and trained a new generation of court-appointed advisers, with an emphasis on applying the latest in psychological research to their decisions, colleagues said.
"He was absolutely passionate about applying scientific knowledge to these legal questions and that's what made it different," said Robin Deutsch, codirector of the program, who interned with him 16 years ago at the start of her career. "He created a bridge between the mental health and legal systems."
When Dr. Herman first became involved in court cases, legal thinking held that the best interest of the child should guide judicial decisions, but there was no consensus on what that meant, said Roberta Benjamin, a lawyer and longtime colleague.
Dr. Herman introduced the notion of taking into account the child's developmental needs along with the legal standards at play.
"Ken began a dialogue," Benjamin said. "He bridged the gap between the professions, law, and psychiatry, with compassion, intellect, irony, and humor."
This dual expertise made Dr. Herman a valuable speaker and consultant for lawyers, probation officers, and judges. He also advised psychologists, social workers, and mental health professionals about child development.
Throughout these endeavors, Dr. Herman strove to make "people aware that children had a voice that needed to be heard," said longtime colleague Mary Corbett.
Rarely, if ever, did Dr. Herman refuse to help a child in need. On weekends when he flew to his home in Boca Raton, Fla., he invariably brought work with him on the plane, Deutsch said. During his weekends at his home in Concord, he frequently made case visits. No matter the hour, he was always gracious to colleagues and children alike.
Nor did Dr. Herman shrink from an emergency. While other guardians ad litem might balk at preparing a report in a crisis situation, Dr. Herman would ask for two weeks and prepare a to-the-point document, Harms said. "It would be just what I needed," she said. "I would always feel better if I could have someone like Ken take a quick look and make a call."
The lengthier guardian ad litem reports he prepared, which took several months to write and spanned more than 50 pages, were also works of legal art. They were always written in clear English and were easy to read, Harms said. Often he would sprinkle them with biblical or literary allusions that reflected his broad range of knowledge and, sometimes, wry sense of humor.
Dr. Herman, who received his undergraduate degree in 1967 from the now-defunct St. Fidelis College, earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from George Washington University in 1974. He spent a year as a Public Health Service Fellow at Children's Hospital, Boston, then joined the Judge Baker Children's Center.
In 1981, he supplemented his psychology training with a law degree from Boston College and the following year founded the Children and Law program at the Judge Baker Children's Center. Ten years later the program moved to Mass. General.
Throughout his career, he maintained that experts should conduct thorough investigations of the cases on which they advised. Clinical evidence, he said, was not enough and should be corroborated with interviews with neighbors, other family members, and outside reports from the school, or police, according to Deutsch.
Dr. Herman realized that the ensuing decision would rarely be a perfect one. "In the name of the child, the probate court often has to choose the lesser of two evils," he was quoted as saying in a 1997 Globe article about a court battle in which twins wound up in state custody. "For critics to look back and say, `Well that wasn't ideal' is a little off the mark. There never was an ideal."
Dr. Herman leaves his mother, Martina, and a brother, Timothy, both of Hays, Kan., as well as two sisters, Barbara Staab of Federal Way, Wash., and Katherine Bowman of San Antonio. His colleagues plan a professional symposium in his honor.
