(LOS ANGELES) Katten announced today that firm attorneys handled finalizing adoptions of four children on the 20th anniversary of National Adoption Day.
Katten attorneys — associates Vlada Fraiman, Yoko S. Ihaza and Leah E.A. Solomon — represented their clients pro bono at the uncontested adoption hearings on November 23 at Edmund D. Edelman Children's Court in Monterey Park, where more than 200 children in the Los Angeles County area joined their new parents in a celebration.
"Volunteering my time and offering my legal skills to finalize adoptions feels very gratifying and worthwhile because you're helping create families," said Solomon, Katten's pro bono co-chair for its California offices. "It's so heartwarming to know these children, who have been through difficult situations and the foster care system, have found loving families. These are the cases that give you the warm, fuzzy feelings."
So far this year, Katten attorneys have finalized 17 pro bono adoption cases and secured benefits and services the families are entitled to receive, impacting a total of 23 children. Public Counsel, the nation's largest not-for-profit law firm specializing in delivering pro bono legal services, has referred more than 100 adoption matters over the last several years to Katten attorneys.
On National Adoption Day, Katten attorneys assisted a couple in welcoming a boy about to turn 2 years old into their family after struggling with infertility, an aunt in adopting her 8-year-old niece, and a couple in becoming parents to their 7-year-old nephew and his 4-year-old half-sister.
National Adoption Day is a nationwide effort to raise awareness of children in foster care waiting for permanent families. The day celebrates and honors families formed through adoption, and encourages others to adopt. Since the first National Adoption Day in 2000, nearly 75,000 foster children across the country have finalized their adoptions as part of that occasion.
Los Angeles
