The resolution of legal issues involving marriage, divorce, termination of personal relationships, the division of assets and liabilities and rights to children, are highly complicated and typically emotionally charged events. When these disputes arise for same-sex couples, an additional layer of complexity is added because the laws are unsettled and constantly evolving – in New York, across the country and in the rest of the world.
When you are facing these issues, you should immediately consult with professionals who have the knowledge and experience to help you make the right choices and guide you through multifaceted personal and financial matters with long term effects. The attorneys in the LGBTQ Family Law Practice of Warshaw Burstein have been at the forefront of defining, expanding and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community for many years and are recognized in New York, across the United States and internationally for their particular skills in this area of the law.
The advanced legal skills and acknowledged professionalism of the LGBTQ Family Law Practice of Warshaw Burstein were most recently recognized when Eric Wrubel, as lead appellate counsel to the attorney for the child in the groundbreaking case of Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A.C.C. , successfully argued to the New York Court of Appeals that the definition of “parent” in New York be expanded. Previously, a “parent” in New York was defined as an individual related to a child biologically or through adoption. We convinced the New York Court of Appeals that its prior “bright-line” definition of “parent” had become unworkable when applied to increasingly varied familial relationships” and that the prior definition was based on a “foundational premise of heterosexual parenting and non-recognition of same-sex couples [which] is unsustainable… in light of… same-sex marriage in New York State, and …Obergefell v. Hodges.” The New York Court of Appeals held that, based on the facts of that case, where an individual can show, by clear and convincing evidence, that there was a pre-conception agreement to conceive and raise a child together, that individual is a parent who may then seek custody and visitation rights. This precedent setting case has personally touched the lives of tens of thousands of New York residents. The decision in Brooke S. B. has already been cited by numerous courts at the trial level and by the Appellate Division in granting rights to parents whose relationships with their children would have otherwise been terminated.
When you are facing these issues, you should immediately consult with professionals who have the knowledge and experience to help you make the right choices and guide you through multifaceted personal and financial matters with long term effects. The attorneys in the LGBTQ Family Law Practice of Warshaw Burstein have been at the forefront of defining, expanding and protecting the rights of the LGBTQ community for many years and are recognized in New York, across the United States and internationally for their particular skills in this area of the law.
Landmark, Precedential Decision by LGBTQ Family Law Practice of WB
The advanced legal skills and acknowledged professionalism of the LGBTQ Family Law Practice of Warshaw Burstein were most recently recognized when Eric Wrubel, as lead appellate counsel to the attorney for the child in the groundbreaking case of Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A.C.C. , successfully argued to the New York Court of Appeals that the definition of “parent” in New York be expanded. Previously, a “parent” in New York was defined as an individual related to a child biologically or through adoption. We convinced the New York Court of Appeals that its prior “bright-line” definition of “parent” had become unworkable when applied to increasingly varied familial relationships” and that the prior definition was based on a “foundational premise of heterosexual parenting and non-recognition of same-sex couples [which] is unsustainable… in light of… same-sex marriage in New York State, and …Obergefell v. Hodges.” The New York Court of Appeals held that, based on the facts of that case, where an individual can show, by clear and convincing evidence, that there was a pre-conception agreement to conceive and raise a child together, that individual is a parent who may then seek custody and visitation rights. This precedent setting case has personally touched the lives of tens of thousands of New York residents. The decision in Brooke S. B. has already been cited by numerous courts at the trial level and by the Appellate Division in granting rights to parents whose relationships with their children would have otherwise been terminated.