Protect your parentage!

A co-parent adoption allows the non-biological parent of a child to obtain the same rights as the biological parent without the biological parent losing any rights. This is especially important for same-sex couples, whom may be married in their state but aren't necessarily guaranteed the same parenting rights.

Learn more about the importance of co-parent adoption (aka second parent adoption) through GLAD's document on Second Parent Adoption in MA [PDF].

Attorney Joyce Kauffman is a 1992 graduate of Northeastern University School of Law and a 1981 graduate of Lesley University, with a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology. In addition to an extensive divorce and traditional family law practice, her practice focuses on issues impacting the LGBTQ community.

On brief in Adoption of Tammy, the 1993 Massachusetts case that secured the right for same-sex couples to adopt, Attorney Kauffman also represented the first lesbian couple in Massachusetts to obtain a birth certificate without benefit of adoption upon the birth of their child, conceived through IVF using the eggs of one of the women but born to the other woman. She has represented a number of families who have successfully obtained three-parent adoptions.