Public Counsel eNews

5,000th Adoption Finalized

Public Counsel’s hard-working Adoptions Project recently finalized its 5,000th adoption of a child out of the foster care system. This achievement represents years of effort, thousands of hours of legal work by Adoptions Project staff, and tens of thousands of hours of work by hundreds of pro bono attorneys from law firms across Los Angeles. In addition, scores of non-attorney volunteers, paralegals, students, and interns have dedicated countless hours to assisting the very special parents who are making homes for these fortunate children.

The Adoptions Project’s 5,000th and 5,001st adoptees are Jasmine and Skyy Calvillo. “The Calvillos are wonderful representatives of our adopting parent clients,” says Karen Ullman, senior staff attorney who directs the Project. “The kindness, dedication and amazing love they provide to these girls are truly inspirational. They remind us of the thousands of heroes we have worked with since the Adoptions Project began – people who have opened their hearts and homes to children who have then blossomed under their love and care and who now have what every child deserves, a permanent and loving home.”

Karen emphasizes the critical role of volunteers in the Adoptions Project’s success: “We send a heartfelt thank you to all our pro bono attorneys, volunteers, staff and law students without whom we never would have been able to reach this incredible benchmark of 5,000,” she says. “Outstanding pro bono volunteers like Mike McDonough and Damon Nagami from Bingham McCutchen not only finalize adoptions but also obtain desperately needed services and funding for the most disabled and vulnerable children in our society.” Since 1999, when McDonough became the Pro Bono Adoption Coordinator for Bingham McCutchen, Bingham attorneys have finalized over 370 adoptions.

Beginning with the establishment of the Adoptions Project in 1997, Public Counsel has worked in partnership with Los Angeles County’s Juvenile Court and Department of Children and Family Services and other stakeholders to make foster children’s dream of a family of their own a reality. These children have been abused, neglected, or abandoned and are under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. If they are not adopted, they run the risk of remaining in the foster care system until they “age out,” often without the education, training, and support they need to become self-sufficient adults. Many such children run away from their foster care placements, joining the ranks of homeless youth on the streets of Hollywood and elsewhere. By providing free legal representation to foster parents adopting children out of the foster care system, Public Counsel has helped prevent negative outcomes for thousands of children.

“It’s a true milestone, to have finalized the adoption of 5,000 children,” says Dan Grunfeld, Public Counsel’s president and CEO. At the same time, Grunfeld points out, “we can’t forget that so many children are still in need of our services. Los Angeles has the nation’s largest foster care system and has thousands of children eligible for adoption.”

Karen Ullman adds: “These children in the dependency system want what all children want: a safe and secure home of their own with parents who love them and take care of them. Our foster parent clients want to give them that and we’re only too glad to help, one child at a time.”