Adoption
Persons seeking to adopt will find assistance with private, agency and international adoptions, as well as expert counseling and litigation experience in contested adoptions. They will also find a highly supportive environment and a high degree of sensitivity to the many complex and emotional issues involved in the adoption process. Our Family Law attorneys have been involved in over 1,300 adoptions, including agency, private, domestic, international, second parent adoptions and stepparent adoptions. Our adoption practice has national recognition, including a member who was named a Congressional Angel in Adoption.
Family Formation Contracts
Our family law attorneys recognize that the traditional family is no longer the norm in our society. In fact, only a minority of American families are couples in a first marriage with children. People are now getting married later in life and as a result, starting their families later. We recognize that forming a family is an important aspect of many of our clients’ personal lives. Our family law attorneys specialize in alternative family formation legal issues.
Many of our clients use reproductive technologies to conceive children and require our assistance with egg and sperm donation contracts, and gestational carrier and surrogate contracts. We can also obtain pre and post-birth orders that instruct hospitals what names to list on a birth certificate when a child is born.
Surrogacy and Gestational Carriers
An increasing number of our family law clients looking to create a family through alternative means are using surrogates and gestational carriers to assist them in forming their families. Our clients use surrogates when they require the assistance of the woman’s egg and ask her to carry the baby. Gestational carriers differ in that while they also carry the child to term, the egg is donated from a different woman. We formalize these relationships by drafting egg and sperm donation contracts, gestational carrier contracts and surrogate contracts. We have also been successful in obtaining pre-birth and post-birth orders that instruct hospitals what names to list on a birth certificate when a child is born.
Two Moms/Two Dads
We have substantial experience in second parent adoptions and have been successful in the appropriate circumstances in having birth certificates adjusted without the need of an adoption. Our attorneys draft contracts between same-sex non-married couples as well. These contracts cover custody and parenting time so that all parties are comfortable with their chosen family plan.