Frank P. Cervone, Esq. is the Executive Director of Child Advocates, the lawyer pro bono program for abused and neglected children in Philadelphia. Prior to his work at Child Advocates, Frank was a Staff Attorney at Delaware County Legal Assistance Association and Adjunct Clinical Professor at Villanova University School of Law, where he instructed law students in domestic-abuse and child-support litigation. He previously served as counsel for Saint Gabriel’s System, an agency providing treatment services for juvenile offenders.
He is a founder and co-director of the National Children’s Law Network, former chair of the Board of the Children’s Trust Fund of Pennsylvania, former chair of the American Bar Association Section of Litigation Task Force on Children, and served as a member of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Procedural Rules Committee. In 2006-7 Mr. Cervone served as a member of the Mayor’s Child Welfare Review Panel examining the Philadelphia child welfare system. Mr. Cervone lectures and trains both lay and professional audiences in child abuse and child advocacy.
He received the American Bar Association Mark Hardin Award for Child Welfare Legal Scholarship and Systems Change in 2014, and numerous other local and national. Frank is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Villanova University School of Law and has a Masters Degree in Theology and Ministry from LaSalle University.