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Diana Adams      

Attorney, LGBTQIA Advocate & Founder of the Chosen Family Law Center

Diana Adams (they/them) is dedicated to the support of all families so that they can thrive, with the security of the legal protections they deserve.

Adams is the founder of a boutique LGBTQ family law and mediation firm based in New York City serving primarily same-sex couples and non-nuclear families. Adams is passionately dedicated to helping form healthy, stable families, whether between same-sex couples, platonic co-parents, polyamorous families, or different-sex couples, by facilitating conversations that support the creation of clear personal agreements, as well as solid legal agreements to protect their families. Adams is proud to be one of the New York State representatives for the selective national organization of leaders on LGBTQ family law, the LBGT Family Law Institute of The National LGBT Bar Association.

Adams speaks internationally about LGBTQI parenting, marriage alternatives, and the evolving structure of the family. They're frequently interviewed as an expert on LGBTQ and nontraditional family structures, with interviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, New York Magazine and many more, and on TV’s The View and MTV, among others. This coverage is due in part to Adams's outspokenness about their own nontraditional family. Their ability to speak boldly about their own life and about proposals for legal reform reflect an unflinching perseverance which they bring to advocacy on behalf of their clients.

Adams has been a social justice activist on feminist, LGBTQ, environmental, and anti-poverty issues for decades. After law school, they did welfare policy reform work for the New York City Human Resources Administration. Later, they were the Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator for the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, where they led this legal services office in representation of indigent Brooklyn residents in child custody, child support, divorce, domestic violence and Civil Court debt collection cases, supervised hundreds of other attorneys' cases, and trained other attorneys.

Speech Topics


LGBTQIA Families, Polyamory, Evolving Family Structures & Nontraditional Family Law

Adams speaks on several topics under the umbrella of Nontraditional Family Law, including: “LGBTQIA Cultural Competency for Lawyers,” “Advanced Topics in Family Law: LGBTQIA & Nontraditional Family Law,” “Polyamory and the Law,” “Adultery and the Law,” and “Bisexuality and the Law”.

They also address how political issues and the current legal system affects families - “U.S. Law & Politics in a Post-DOMA World,” “How to Protect LGBTQ & Nontraditional Families Under Threat.” This 1-hour class gives an overview of what LGBTQ+ families can legally do to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Courageous Conversations

Communication That Can Change Minds & The World We need to leave our comfort zone and speak with those in our lives with whom we disagree, because we have the power to influence family and friends in favor of social justice and tolerance. We need their votes and voices, and they need us to listen and understand their perspective. Using tools of de-escalation, mediation and non-violent communication, Diana will help you prepare communication techniques to build bridges with those with whom we disagree, to really hear each other without provocation, and to be able to speak on behalf of justice to people in your life as a force for effective social change.

Restorative Justice, Courageous Conversations, Mediation, Conflict Resolution

Diana is a master mediator, collaborative lawyer, & restorative justice facilitator who utilizes these skills to bring peace and respect to family transitions, and also to support de-escalation, conflict resolution, and assertive communication with conflict in other contexts including workplace team building.

International LGBTQIA Family Law

Trends in LGBTQIA Family Law across the US and Europe.

News


A Massachusetts City Decides to Recognize Polyamorous Relationships
The city of Somerville has broadened the definition of domestic partnership to include relationships between three or more adults, expanding access to health care.
The Rise of the 3-Parent Family
The typical path to parenthood didn’t work for David Jay, a founder of the asexual movement. So he designed his own household—and is trying to show others what is possible. Diana Adams, Founder of the Chosen Family Law Center...

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