Adoption Procedures and Forms: A Guide for Virginia Lawyers

Colleen M. Quinn, co-editor of this book, author of Chapter 12, and co-author of Chapters 1 through 8, 10, 11, and 14 through 18, has represented thousands of adopting parents, birth parents, adoptees, agencies, intended parents, surrogates, gestational carriers, donors, and clinics since 1989. After graduating from the College of William and Mary and UVA Law School, Ms. Quinn clerked for the Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, The Hon. Harry L. Carrico. She is a Fellow and Past-President (2016-2017) of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys (“AAAA”), formerly the American Academies of Adoption and of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys (“AAAA” and “AAARTA”), serving on the Board of Trustees (2006-2010, 2013-2018) and on the Family Formation Charitable Trust Board (2016-2018). For AAAA, she served as Treasurer (2018), Chair of the Finance, Revenue, Awards, and Investment Committees, Grievance Chair (2015-2016), Webinar Chair (2013-2015), and published the AAAA “Representing Birth Parents Handbook” (2003). She was also a member of the AAARTA Executive Council and served as Membership Chair (2009-2015), as 2011 Mid-Year Conference Chair and 2007 Annual Convention Chair, is an AAARTA Founder (2009), was on the ARTS Committee (2006-2009), and chaired the Birth Parent Representation Committee (1999-2003). She serves or has served as program chair and speaker for numerous adoption and ART seminars and programs; has appeared as an expert witness in adoption law and in surrogacy law cases; served as a certified guardian ad litem; is a Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, a member of the LGBT Bar Family Law Institute, VEBA, the ABA ART, Adoption and Alternative Families Committees, ASRM, RESOLVE, AAJ, RBA, VSB, and VTLA (serving as Chair/Co- Chair for many Committees).

Ms. Quinn is a partner and equity owner in the firm of Locke & Quinn, which was winner of the Trial Lawyers Board of Regents 2015 Litigator Award featured on CNN and awarded Best Law Firms in America (2015-2019). Ms. Quinn was a recipient of an “AV” rating by both her peers and the judiciary, the highest given, by Martindale Hubbell. She founded the Raising the Bar Law Talk Show, the Adoption & Surrogacy Law Center, the Women’s Injury Law Center, and the QLC Intern Program. She is Past-President of the Richmond Chapter of National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), Past-Secretary of the Richmond NAWBO Foundation Board, Past- Chairman of the Richmond Women’s Business Consortium, Past-President of the Metropolitan Richmond Women’s Bar Association, and has served or presently serves on the Virginia Law Foundation Board, Virginia Family Law Coalition, Creating a Family Board, United Way Women’s Leadership Council, Girl Scouts of Virginia Board (Treasurer/Finance Chair), Richmond YWCA Board (prior Advisory Council and President), American Heart Association Go Red for Women Executive Leadership Team and CorVitae, VSDV Action Alliance, Petersburg Domestic Violence Task Force, and Cancer LINC and is a 1996 graduate of Leadership Metro Richmond. She is a lifetime Girl Scout member and, in her spare time, scuba dives, plays tennis, mountain bikes, cycles, and teaches aerobics.

For her work, Ms. Quinn has been named as one of the 2019 VLW Influential Women in Law in Virginia (inaugural class), top “Women Leader in the Law” in Family Law and Personal Injury (2016-2018) by Legal Leaders-American Lawyer and The National Law Journal, “Best Lawyers in America” (2014- 2019), U.S. News & World Report, “Adoption Attorney of the Year” by Lawyers Monthly magazine (2018), recipient of the AAAA President’s Award (2018), MRWBA Women of Achievement Award (2017), Richmond NAWBO “Entrepreneur of the Year” award (2016), Virginia State Bar Family Law Service Award (2015), “Top 100 Trial Lawyers” by The National Trial Lawyers (2012-2018), YWCA Outstanding Woman Award for Law & Government (2011), “Hats Off to Women Award” by ABWA Cavalier Chapter (2011), a “Super Lawyer” by Richmond magazine (2006-2018) Top 100 (2012, 2013), 2019)/Top 50 (2011) in Virginia, Top 50 (2012-2019)/Top 25 (2010, 2011) Female in Virginia, and Top 50 (2013)/Top 25 (2012, 2013, 2019) in Richmond, by Virginia Business magazine as Virginia’s “Legal Elite” (2005, 2010-2017), a “Leader in the Law” by Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly (2009), and the Congressional CCAI “Angels in Adoption” award (2008).

Barbara C. Jones, co-editor of this book and co-author of Chapters 1 through 8, 10, 11, and 14 through 18 is a solo practitioner who has been licensed to practice in Virginia since 1988. She specializes in adoption law including direct parental placement adoptions, agency finalizations, re-adoptions, adoption finalizations for internationally born children, stepparent adoptions, grandparent and relative adoptions, adult adoptions, and interstate adoptions. She represents adoptive parents, birth parents, legal guardians, and children and assists various counties and cities in the commonwealth with the finalizations of the adoptions for children who have been placed from foster care. She serves as counsel to licensed child-placing agencies and adoption-related associations. Ms. Jones earned a B.A. in Sociology from Albion College and a J.D. from George Mason University.

Mrs. Jones is a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, a not-for-profit fellowship of attorneys, judges, and law professors in the United States and around the world, who maintain their practices according to the highest standards of professionalism, competence, and ethics; she is a member of the Christian Legal Society.

Mrs. Jones served as a member of the Joint Subcommittee appointed by the Virginia General Assembly to provide a comprehensive review of Virginia’s adoption laws and policies in 2005, which resulted in over one hundred changes to the commonwealth’s adoption laws; she served for 30 years as a guardian ad litem certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia; serves as a consultant for pregnancy crisis centers; and teaches and speaks at adoption seminars and programs.

Mrs. Jones was a recipient of the Angel in Adoption Award from The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute in 2011 and named “Top Lawyer” by Northern Virginia Magazine.

Karen Stoutamyer Law, author of Chapter 9, practices law in Northern Virginia. Her practice is limited to adoption and immigration law for adopted children. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1985. She is a fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys and a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Virginia Women Attorneys Association, and the Loudoun Bar Association. She was designated as a 2013 Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption.

Ms. Law assists clients with adoption overview planning, direct parental placement adoptions, agency finalizations, foster care finalizations, relative adoptions and re-adoptions, family based immigration filings, orphan visa petitions, Hague Convention adoption consultations and filings, SIJS applications, and United States citizenship filings. She has been certified by the Virginia Supreme Court as guardian ad litem to represent the interests of children in adoptions throughout the commonwealth. She often speaks at community events and national conferences and has co-authored numerous articles on intercountry adoption. She has traveled with her family to work in orphanages throughout the world, including South Africa, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Jamaica.

Thomas G. Nolan, author of Chapter 13, is the founder and sole member of Virginia Wills, Trusts & Estates. He provides legal services and advice related to estate planning, the probate system, the settling of estates, estate and gift taxation, and infant and adult adoptions. He has an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and has practiced law in Charlottesville since 1987.

Mr. Nolan is active in a number of professional organizations related to his areas of practice. He is a past Chairman of the Wills, Trusts & Estates Section of The Virginia Bar Association and remains active on the section’s Legislative Committee. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys. Mr. Nolan has been a guest speaker each year since 2005 at the Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Administration Seminar sponsored by The Virginia Bar Association and Virginia CLE.

Mr. Nolan received his B.A. from the University of Virginia in 1978 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982. He lives in Albemarle County with his wife Jane and their two children.