Posts tagged Legal Issues
Episode 140: Israeli Surrogacy – Attorney Victoria Gelfand
Episode 140: Israeli Surrogacy – Attorney Victoria Gelfand

Where do Israeli intended parents go to for surrogacy? What specific hurdles do they have to overcome? Is surrogacy widely available within Israel? And what is so drastically different between the Israeli approach to genetic parentage -- whether through surrogacy or through reproduction technologies -- and the American one?

Victoria Gelfand (born and raised in Moscow, immigrated to Israel in her teens, educated in Tel Aviv and admitted to the Israeli bar in 2003) was the first attorney to provide legal assistance to Israeli couples and singles with respect to surrogacy procedures abroad back in 2006. In 2007, she achieved first recognition of surrogacy procedures carried out in India by the Israeli Ministry of Internal Affairs, creating a process that has since been used for all – well over two thousand – babies born to Israeli intended parents via surrogacy abroad. In 2008 she started her own practice which specializes exclusively on family formation and fertility law, and has won various precedential cases related to foreign surrogacy for Israeli intended parents. Victoria Gelfand, Law Offices is the only law firm outside North America which is a member of all three major US-based professional groups and societies in the field: the ABA, the AAAA, and SEEDS.

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Episodes 126-150Tyler EllisInternational, Legal Issues
Episode 132: Post-Mortem Sperm Retrieval – Casey DiPaola and Joe Williams
Episode 132: Post-Mortem Sperm Retrieval – Casey DiPaola and Joe Williams

Kathleen (“Casey”) Copps DiPaola, Esq. is a partner of Copps DiPaola Silverman, PLLC in Albany, New York where she focuses her practice on Adoption, Assisted Reproduction and Estate Planning & Probate. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, the President of New York Attorneys for Adoption & Family Formation and also an active member of various bar associations. She has worked tirelessly over the last several years to help draft the New York Child Parent Security Act and advocate for its enactment by the legislature. She is also a frequent lecturer to attorneys, judges, fertility clinics and other organizations on the topics of adoption, assisted reproduction/surrogacy and the intersection of estate planning and family formation. Ms. DiPaola is also the founder of the New York Surrogacy Center, a licensed surrogacy matching program that operates primarily in New York, Vermont and New Jersey. She is licensed to practice in state courts in New York, New Jersey and Vermont as well as various federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Ms. DiPaola is also an active volunteer in her community in both a legal and non-legal capacity. She previously graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with highest honors and as the salutatorian from Albany Law School in 2009. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children.

Joseph R. Williams practices primarily in the fields of matrimonial, family, and adoption law. Joe represents individuals in the negotiation and litigation of separation, divorce, child custody, support and domestic violence matters, as well as all areas of adoption law, including private adoptions, voluntary agency adoptions, foster care adoptions and step/second parent adoptions. Joe also practices in the related area of assisted reproductive technology law (egg/sperm/embryo donation and surrogacy/gestational carrier agreements) and kinship guardianship (kinGAP).

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Episodes 126-150Tyler EllisAdoption, Legal Issues
Episode 128: Surrogacy Struggles in Michigan – Aubrey Gojcaj
Episode 128: Surrogacy Struggles in Michigan – Aubrey Gojcaj

Aubrey Gojcaj is a wife, mom, and Michigander, as well as a passionate advocate for eliminating family building obstacles. Medical complications from the birth of her first child ended Aubrey’s ability to be pregnant again. She was thrilled when her sister generously offered to be her surrogate. But the journey to having another child has been made especially difficult by Michigan’s anti-surrogacy laws.

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Episodes 126-150Tyler EllisGestational Carrier Experience, Legal Issues
Episode 122: Navigating The Aftermath Of An IVF Mix-Up – Donna and Vanner Johnson and Devin and Kelly McNeil

Vanner and Donna Johnson are a married couple, parents of two children, living in Utah. Vanner is a licensed attorney with a strong technology background, currently working in the financial industry in client success. Donna is an elementary educator.

Kelly And Devin McNeil are a married couple who are 3 time IVF patients, with 2 failed cycles, then a successful pregnancy resulting in their now 13 year old son. They reside in Colorado. 

These two couples met because of an inexplicable IVF mix-up, forever connecting the two families. Together they are working to support their children and navigate the best path forward.

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Episodes 101-125Tyler EllisGenetic Identity, Infertility, Legal Issues
Episode 117: Global Principles of Surrogacy- Steve Snyder
Episode 117: Global Principles of Surrogacy- Steve Snyder

Steve Snyder is nationally known for his work helping families with assisted reproduction law. He is the past chair of the American Bar Association's Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee, Family Law Section. Steve has taught numerous reproductive law continuing legal education classes to fellow Minnesota attorneys, as well as to lawyers from across the globe. Many attorneys refer assisted reproductive law cases to him because of his extensive knowledge in the field. Steve has been recognized as a Super Lawyer, and he is also AV Rated (which means judges and fellow attorneys have noted him as having the highest degree of legal ability and ethical standards).

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Episodes 101-125Tyler EllisLegal Issues
Episode 110: 4+ Parents, One Family - Indra Lusero
Episode 110: 4+ Parents, One Family - Indra Lusero

Indra Lusero is founder of Elephant Circle and the Birth Rights Bar Association. Indra's family has been in the Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado area for generations. As a Queer, Genderqueer, Latinx parent rooted in this region, Indra is attuned to the importance of people on the margins and our role in leading the dismantling of oppressive systems to build a more equitable world. Indra helped pass legislation in Colorado to eliminate the shackling of incarcerated women during pregnancy and birth, to improve midwifery and birth center regulations, and to create more humane policies for families impacted by substance use. Indra also spearheaded the creation of "Birth Rights: A resource for everyday people to defend human rights during labor and birth."

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Episodes 101-125Tyler EllisLegal Issues, LGBTQ Parenthood, Surrogacy Expert
Episode 107: The Professor Is In - Jody Madeira
Episode 107: The Professor Is In - Jody Madeira

Jody Madeira is a professor of law and co-director of the Center for Law, Society & Culture at the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University. Her scholarly interests involve empirical research; the role of emotion in law; the sociology of law; law, medicine, and bioethics; and the Second Amendment. Her most recent book, Taking Baby Steps: How Patients and Fertility Clinics Collaborate in Conception (University of California Press, 2018), takes readers inside the infertility experience, from dealing with infertility-related emotions to forming treatment relationships with medical professionals, confronting difficult decisions, and negotiating informed consent. Based on a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data (130 patient interviews, 83 interviews with reproductive medical professionals, and 267 patient surveys), Madeira investigates how women, men, and their care providers can utilize trust to collaboratively negotiate infertility’s personal, physical, spiritual, ethical, medical, and legal minefields.

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Episodes 101-125Tyler EllisAuthor, Infertility, Legal Issues
Episode 95: Our Daughter Is American, Too - Derek Mize & Jonathan Gregg
Episode 95: Our Daughter Is American, Too - Derek Mize & Jonathan Gregg

Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg are a married couple that, like others, dreamed one day of becoming parents. When their daughter was born in 2018 by surrogacy in the United Kingdom they were overjoyed. Given that both dads are US citizens and legally recognized as their daughter’s parents, they never imagined that their baby daughter would be denied recognition as a US citizen, too. But she was! With the help of Immigration Equality, Lambda Legal, and pro bono counsel from Morgan Lewis, they brought suit against the US government in order for their family to remain intact and their daughter to receive the recognition of citizenship she was entitled to.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisIntended Parent, International, Legal Issues
Episode 94: Nightmare Judge Orphans Surrogate-Born Child - Jay Timmons and Rick Olson
Episode 94: Nightmare Judge Orphans Surrogate-Born Child - Jay Timmons and Rick Olson

Jay Timmons and Rick Olson, a Virginia-based couple, started their family with the help of surrogacy. They had two amazing daughters and thought their family was complete when a friend asked if they would be willing to consider an embryo donation. For their third child, the dads were matched with a surrogate in Wisconsin. However, just weeks before the birth of their son, a new judge was appointed to their case, for what they thought were routine judicial proceedings. The judge’s extreme views lead their family to experience a nightmare of epic proportions.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisLegal Issues, LGBTQ Parenthood, Intended Parent
Episode 91: Fraudulent Insemination - Maia Emmons-Boring
Episode 91: Fraudulent Insemination - Maia Emmons-Boring

Maia Emmons-Boring was interested in her family’s genealogy and, like millions of others, took an at home DNA test to learn more. Initially, her results did not appear surprising. However, about 6 months later, at a New Year’s Eve party she received a message from Ancestry.com that an unknown sibling was trying to contact her. That message would open a Pandora’s box that she never imagined.

Maia grew up with two younger sisters and wonderful parents. She was born in Colorado but raised in Southern California. Eleven years ago, she left California for Texas. She is married to her high school sweetheart and has four children.

Over the last year and a half, after finding out she was donor-conceived -- and more shockingly, that her mother’s fertility doctor was the “donor” – she has become a fertility fraud activist. She worked with lawmakers in Colorado to successfully pass a fertility fraud bill. She plans on continuing to work with lawmakers in various states and at the federal level to change laws to better protect victims.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisGenetic Identity, Legal Issues
Episode 85: Embryo Mix-Up Shocker – Attorney Eric Wrubel
Episode 85: Embryo Mix-Up Shocker – Attorney Eric Wrubel

Eric Wrubel’s legal practice is devoted to handling complex family and matrimonial matters. He is accomplished in negotiating the amicable dissolution of marriages as well as taking these cases to trial if settlement is not possible. Eric has dealt with a large variety of issues in family and matrimonial matters, including complex equitable distribution questions, novel support and custody issues, as well as being on the forefront in same-gender marital issues. A skilled trial lawyer and appellate advocate, Eric was involved in the trial and appeal of the seminal case in New York dealing with the validity of foreign pre-nuptial agreements. He has litigated, written and lectured extensively on same gender marriage and divorce, civil unions, domestic partnerships and their tax consequences.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisLegal Issues
Episode 83: Stuck Abroad - Carolin Topelson
Episode 83: Stuck Abroad - Carolin Topelson

Carolin is originally from Mexico City. Her family moved to Denver when she was five, where she has lived most of her life. Carolin practices in the areas of real estate related litigation and business litigation. Specifically, Carolin’s practice has primarily focused on landlord-tenant law (both commercial and residential evictions and review of leases), mechanic liens, general real estate matters, homeowner association issues, partition of real estate, business disputes, and contracts. In her spare time, Carolin likes to ski, be with family, cook, travel and volunteer for different causes.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisIntended Parent, International, Legal Issues
Episode 82: Beware of the Home DNA Kit - Danielle Teuscher and Jill Teitel
Episode 82: Beware of the Home DNA Kit - Danielle Teuscher and Jill Teitel

Danielle Teuscher and her spouse struggled with infertility but were successful in conceiving a daughter through the use of donated sperm. Many years later, Danielle and her family, along with her daughter, took at home DNA tests. The results were surprising, and the chain of events that followed were even more so!

Jill Teitel has been an attorney since 1996 and in private practice since 2011. She has a varied legal background from commercial litigation, trusts and estates work, and corporate and international arbitration. Her practice centers around trusts and estates and litigation involving women’s rights and advocacy.

The case of Teuscher v. CCB-NWC, LLC is in ongoing litigation. Anything that Ms. Teuscher or Ms. Teitel stated in this podcast, recorded on February 28, 2020, should not be used for anything other than communication to the public about the Plaintiffs' plight.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisGenetic Identity, Infertility, Legal Issues
Episode 81: Father, Attorney, Advocate - Ryan Ferrante
Episode 81: Father, Attorney, Advocate - Ryan Ferrante

Ryan's career as an Assisted Reproduction Technology attorney was born of a personal, four-year infertility struggle shared with his wife. This challenging experience to start his own family gives Ryan a unique perspective - one of an intended father, a party to a gestational surrogacy agreement, and an experienced attorney - to fully understand the emotional, practical, and legal issues facing patients when pursuing infertility treatments. Ryan earned his J.D. from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago and Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Ryan is a professional member of RESOLVE, the American Bar Association, the Illinois State Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisAdvocacy, Intended Parent, Legal Issues, Infertility
Episode 80: Courts, Covid, and Custody: A Hot Debate
Episode 80: Courts, Covid, and Custody: A Hot Debate

Dr. Christina Yannetsos qualified for and attended the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. After an injury stopped her from competing, she pursued her life-long passion of caring for patients. She graduated from the University of Colorado with honors, completed medical school and a residency in Emergency Medicine, becoming a Board-Certified Physician. Christina is a passionate advocate and -- more importantly than the doctor or Olympics stuff -- a former guest of the podcast.

Sophie Jacobi-Parisi concentrates her practice in all areas of matrimonial and family law. She is experienced handling complicated custody cases, particularly custody matters involving children with special needs. Sophie is experienced in negotiating prenuptial, separation and settlement agreements and she also has litigation and trial experience in New York’s Family and Supreme courts.

Eric Wrubel has dealt with a large variety of issues in family and matrimonial matters, including complex equitable distribution questions, novel support and custody issues, as well as being on the forefront in same-gender marital issues. Despite his extensive credentials and easy going manner, Eric will confess that Sophie is much more likeable and that he is quickly forgotten once his friends and admirers meet her.

Attorneys Eric Wrubel and Sophie Jacobi-Parisi are law partners at Warshaw Burstein in New York. Both practice in the area of complex family and matrimonial law. A heated email conversation between Eric and Sophie over shocking Covid-19 custody rulings, and the appropriate role of the court system, inspired this moderated debate. And given the medical issues involved we brought in an expert, emergency room physician Dr. Christina Yannetsos.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisLegal Issues
Episode 79: Surrogacy In The Time Of COVID - Robin Pope
Episode 79: Surrogacy In The Time Of COVID - Robin Pope

Robin Pope is an ART Attorney in Oregon with more than 25 years of adoption and family formation law. Robin graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1981, when adoptions were closed, surrogacy as a solution to female infertility was a recent development, and assisted reproductive technologies such as gestational surrogacy, egg donations, and embryo transfers were newly emerging methods for family building. After her personal experience with infertility, her law practice shifted its focus from family law to adoption and family formation law.

Robin is a member of the Oregon State Bar and a Fellow in the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys. In addition to representing adoptive parents, birth parents, surrogates, and intended parents for the past 20 years, Robin has represented the position of the Oregon State Bar on adoption and surrogacy issues.

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Episodes 76-100Tyler EllisLegal Issues, Infertility
Episode 70: Will Halm, Esq.
Episode 70: Will Halm, Esq.

Will Halm is the Managing Partner of International Reproductive Law Group.  He has specialized in the field of assisted
reproductive law for over 20 years.  Will is a magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the father of three children through surrogacy and egg donation.  

He has devoted his legal career to surrogacy and egg donation law. Will’s legal work in the field of assisted reproduction has been featured in numerous documentaries, television programs, publications, and books, including 20/20, NBC News, The New York Times, UK Guardian, the Advocate, and others. 

Will has set a number of legal precedents in the field of assisted reproduction law, including being granted, in 1998, the first parentage judgment to a same-sex couple in a gestational surrogacy case. Will is a member of the American Bar Association, Assisted Reproductive Technology Section and Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys.

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Episodes 51-75Tyler EllisIntended Parent, Legal Issues, LGBTQ Parenthood
Episode 68: Super Attorney Steve Snyder Takes On The Big Questions
Episode 68: Super Attorney Steve Snyder Takes On The Big Questions

Steve Snyder is nationally known for his work helping families
with assisted reproduction law. He is the past chair of the American Bar Association's Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee, Family Law Section. Steve has taught numerous reproductive law continuing legal education classes to fellow Minnesota attorneys, as well as to lawyers from across the globe. Many attorneys refer assisted reproductive law cases to him because of his extensive knowledge in the field. Steve has been recognized as a Super Lawyer, and he is also AV Rated (which means judges and fellow attorneys have noted him as having the highest degree of legal ability and ethical standards).

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Episodes 51-75Tyler EllisLegal Issues