Adoption & Family Formation

Mellon Webster & Shelly's Adoption & Family Formation practice includes not only the traditional methods of adoption, but also the emerging field of alternative reproductive technology law. We have been involved in the creation of over 3500 families through our experience in the Family Formation practice of law.

Our adoption practice includes private adoptions, attorney assisted identified adoptions, step-parent, same sex, and second parent adoptions. We represent adoptive parents, who are looking to locate a suitable placement of a domestic born child, as well as adoptive parents who seek to complete an international adoption. We also represent birth parents, who desire to make an adoption plan for their child, as well as licensed adoption agencies. We have over 30 years of experience in the complexities of an interstate adoption, as well as the Pennsylvania procedures necessary to assure a successful and secure adoption. In the unfortunate event that an adoption becomes contested, our attorneys have vigorously represented adoptive parents before the courts.

Mellon Webster and Shelly is one of the few law firms in the country that has extensive experience in the emerging area of litigation called "Wrongful Adoption." One of our attorneys was lead counsel in the case before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania that established the right of adoptive parents to seek compensation from agency intermediaries for failure to disclose to them all relevant and material information in its possession about a child’s health and medical history prior to the adoption becoming final.

Finally, our attorneys have vast experience in and are leaders in the field of alternative reproductive technology, including gestational carriers, ovum donation and traditional surrogacy.

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