Diana Adams, Esq., Founder and Managing Partner

Diana founded this boutique LGBTQIA+ family law and mediation firm based in New York City serving primarily same-sex couples and non-nuclear families. Diana is passionately dedicated to helping form healthy, stable families, whether between same-sex couples, platonic co-parents, polyamorous families, or different-sex couples, by facilitating conversations that support the creation of clear personal agreements, as well as solid legal agreements to protect their families. Diana is proud to be one of the New York State representatives for the selective national organization of leaders on LGBTQIA+ family law, the LBGTQ Family Law Institute of The National LGBT Bar Association. 

 CLICK HERE TO WATCH DIANA'S TED TALK! 

 Pronouns: They/Them 

Diana embraces the identity of ‘counselor-at-law’ and strives to provide compassionate counsel to clients, so that clients can feel safe trusting Diana with the details of their case. They support clients holistically, not just with the preparation of legal documents, but also with their emotional needs during times of transition. While too much of family law and divorce has historically been framed as a winner-takes-all battle between each side, Diana acknowledges the emotional and personal costs that may come from engaging in such a battle with a family member, co-parent, or spouse. 

Diana is a leader in support of polyamorous families and non-nuclear family structures.

Diana not only advocates for same-sex couples, but for family groups of three or more who may be polyamorous, platonic co-parents, or in an intergenerational family structure. In addition, Diana has argued many child custody and divorce cases in New York State in which a parent has had their private adult consensual sexual behavior unfairly used against them in a child custody case in which the child is unaffected and no inappropriate behavior toward the child has occurred, such as when a parent is polyamorous or participates in BDSM or kink behavior, naturism/nudism, or adult industry employment. Diana consults on trial strategy in these cases nationwide.

Diana is a thought leader on LBTQIA+ issues and the future of family structure, and does frequent media interviews, public speaking, and teaching.

Diana speaks internationally about LGBTQIA+ parenting, marriage alternatives, and the evolving structure of the family, and in addition to their work in the U.S., they were the Founder and first Director of the Euro LGBTQ Family Law Institute, bringing together leaders on LGBTQ family issues across Europe. 

Diana does frequent law school teaching as both an Adjunct and Guest Lecturer, and most recently as an Adjunct Law Professor at Cornell Law School teaching Advanced LGBTQ Family Law, and as a frequent guest lecturer at Harvard Law School. 

They are frequently interviewed as an expert on LGBTQIA+ and modern family structures, with interviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, New York Magazine and many more outlets nationally and internationally. Diana’s ability to speak boldly about their own life and about proposals for legal reform reflect an unflinching perseverance which they bring to advocacy on behalf of their clients.

Contact us for information about having Diana speak to your organization or give a talk at an event.   

Diana has a long history of social justice activism. 

Diana has been a social justice activist on feminist, LGBTQIA+, environmental, and anti-poverty issues for decades. After law school, Diana did welfare policy reform work for the New York City Human Resources Administration. Later, they were the Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator for the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, where they led this legal services office in representation of indigent Brooklyn residents in child custody, child support, divorce, domestic violence and Civil Court debt collection cases, supervised hundreds of other attorneys' cases, and trained other attorneys. This position created the wealth of experiences and contacts within the legal community sufficient to support Diana in launching this innovative firm in 2007, as well as Chosen Family Law Center, a legal services non-profit they co-founded in 2017. 

Admitted

2014, United States Supreme Court

2004, New York

Education

Law School: Cornell Law School

College: Yale College, B.A., Political Science

Awards

• Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40 by National LGBT Bar Association, 2014
• Folsom Street East Sexual Freedom Hero Award, 2011
• Empire Justice Award for pro bono service 2008, 2009
• Freeman Award for Civil-Human Rights, selected by law faculty for graduation from Cornell Law, 2004
• National Assoc. of Women Lawyers Award for most promising female law graduate, 2004

Publications

• Diana’s symposium article Equality for Unmarried America: Legal Choice for America’s Diverse Families was published by the Charlotte Law Review in 2013.

 Diana's Domestic Violence Training and Work

Diana has extensive experience in assisting those with domestic violence cases.

• Diana has been a trained rape and domestic violence counselor since 2002.
• Served on the NYC Mayor's Office Task Force on Domestic Violence.
• Diana served on the NYC Bar Association's Women & Law Committee producing programming on DV and law.
• Taught on domestic violence widely, including at Yale College, Harvard Law School, and to other attorneys via the NYS Bar Association and other CLEs.
• Diana was Staff Attorney & Pro Bono Coordinator at the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, managing primarily a docket of DV family court cases for low-income women in Brooklyn.
• Diana won a landmark ruling in the 3rd Dept of NY in 2003 to extend exception to equitable distribution of marital property in divorce from attempted murder to domestic violence and marital rape, so that a victim can be awarded ALL property in a divorce.