Hi,
I wondered what you all thought about using a lawyer from another state. We are in NY state and have a NY adoption atty. In NY the lawyers can’t do any outreach for you. Ours does do pretty thorough screening of the PBMs and guides us through every step of the process. In NJ and FL for example your atty will do outreach for you. I had assumed that we had to use a lawyer in our state but I spoke with an atty from FL and she said that’s not true and many of her clients are NYers.
What are your thoughts? Did you choose a lawyer because they did or did not do outreach for you? Are we allowed on this board to say the name of the law firm I am considering?
After 2 years and thousands of dollars and little to show for it I am open to another path.
Thanks!
Jessica

We did use a lawyer from a state different than ours (we live in KY and used a lawyer in Ohio). Though in different states, we were still only 2 hours apart distance wise, so that made traveling to meet with expecting mothers easier. But we also considered working with a lawyer in CA and an agency in TX before choosing our Ohio lawyer. Our main reason for choosing a lawyer/agency from out of our state was that our home-study agency recommended we do so. Our home-study agency expressed the opinion that fewer women chose to place their children for adoption in KY than in some other states, and that if we wanted to shorten our wait it would be best to look outside of the state. I can neither confirm or deny their expressed opinion, but we did follow their advice.  Additionally, I liked Ohio’s adoption laws regarding TPR better than KY’s.

Thanks Felicia!
To clarify, we are looking for PBMs in many states (about 25 different ones depending on where we are advertising that month) so we never restricted where the BM would be from, just where our lawyer practiced. The lawyer in FL does outreach all over but also FL which is a good state regarding TPR and it’s laws work well with NY so that is a plus.
Babydreams