Advocacy & Awards
A Fierce Advocate
“Having the opportunity to make lasting improvements to our legal system on behalf of the most vulnerable, and to know the very many kids and families and see them blossom into happy and safe adults, are the greatest rewards. After 47 years and over three million miles, I’m just getting started.”
Foster Children
Always conscious of the importance of the relationship between social services and the legal profession, early in his career, former foster parent and adoptive father Richard Ducote conceived, co-authored and directed a grant proposal submitted to the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect to improve the court handling of child protection and foster-care cases in parishes where he once served as a probation officer. The results garnered national attention and recognition. This was just the beginning of a lifelong passion for foster-care reform. Read more.
Legal Reform
Richard Ducote has drafted over 30 child custody, child abuse, adoption, foster care, and domestic violence laws successfully enacted in Louisiana and other states and incorporated into federal legislation. His U.S. Supreme Court win, Ankenbrandt v. Richards, which granted children the right to sue their abusers, has been cited in over 2,300 cases, 500 law-review articles and 200 legal texts and treatises. works tirelessly to prevent family violence by enacting meaningful change in the way the legal system works. Read more.
Training and Teaching
In addition to serving as a clinical professor of psychiatry at Louisiana State University’s Medical Center, Richard Ducote has taught judges, lawyers, and health care professionals for decades at state and national conferences and in law school lectures. Read more.
Rethinking Family Courts
An ardent critic of the family court system, Richard Ducote spends a good portion of his time outside courtrooms sounding the alarm about the inappropriate delegation of authority to child-custody evaluators, such as guardians ad litem, and the use of bogus and discredited defenses, such as parental alienation syndrome. Read more.
Awards & Initiatives
Over the course of his 47-year career Richard Ducote has received three lifetime achievement awards: Judge Sol Gothard Award, National Organization of Forensic Social Work (2012); Judge Richard Ware Award, Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund Board (2015); and at the Battered Mothers Custody Conference (2022).
He was also honored by the ABA Young Lawyers Division, the Northern Plains Tribal Institute, the LSU School of Social Work Alumni Association, Justice for Children, the National Association of Social Workers, the Louisiana Foster Parent Association, and other organizations.
More recent honors include:
1. 2025 Champion of Change
Covington, Louisiana attorney Richard Ducote was named a 2025 Champion of Change Nov. 20 by the nonprofit Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response (STAR), which advocates for survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking. The award honors exceptional individuals who have demonstrated unwavering commitment, compassion and support for survivors.
2. Lifetime Achievement Award for Legal Education and Policy Reform for Child Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Award
At the Institute on Violence, Abuse & Trauma’s (IVAT) 30th Annual Summit in San Diego, California in August 2025, Richard Ducote received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Legal Education and Policy Reform for Child Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Violence. “The person receiving this award has dedicated their life and career to educating others and advocating for survivors of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence.”
3. 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award
Richard Ducote was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Alliance for HOPE International’s Purple Ribbon Ceremony, where he was introduced as a “hope giver” in the domestic violence movement, which includes advocates, programs, shelters and survivors.