Diana Adams, Esq., Founder and Principal

Diana embraces the identity of ‘counselor-at-law’ and strives to provide compassionate counsel to clients, so that clients can feel safe trusting her with the details of their case. She supports 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 proud member of The LGBTQI Family Professionals of New York, a NY collective of LGBTQI attorneys, mediators, mental health professionals, and financial professionals, who often work together in the collaborative process to support families without court intervention:

Diana is a leader in support of polyamorous families and nontraditional 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. Diana has also long been a referral for Kink Aware Professionals. 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 LBTQ issues and the future of family structure, who does frequent media interviews, public speaking, and teaching.

Diana speaks internationally about LGBTQI parenting, marriage alternatives, and the evolving structure of the family. Diana does frequent law school teaching, most recently as an Adjunct Law Professor at Cornell Law School teaching LGBTQ Family Law, and as a frequent guest lecturer at Harvard law School. Diana is frequently interviewed as an expert on LGBTQ and nontraditional family structures, with interviews in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, New York Magazine and many more, and on TV’s The View and MTV, among others. This coverage is due in part to her outspokenness about her own nontraditional family. Diana’s ability to speak boldly about her own life and about proposals for legal reform reflect an unflinching perseverance which she brings to advocacy on behalf of her clients. 

Download a PDF of Diana's Speaker Profile here.

Diana takes her activism throughout the US and Europe.

Diana is currently based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and spends every third month in New York. While in Frankfurt, Diana serves Americans living in Europe, and works with NY clients remotely. While in NY, Diana schedules intensives with clients (see below), in which they work in a compressed period to resolve a case efficiently.

Diana was recently named Director of the newly formed Euro LGBT Family Law Institute, bringing together leaders on LGBTQ family issues across Europe.

Diana has a long history of social justice activism. 

Diana has been a social justice activist on feminist, LGBTQ, 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, she was the Staff Attorney and Pro Bono Coordinator for the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, where she 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 her in launching her own innovative firm in 2007.

Diana's Domestic Violence Training and Work

As noted above, Diana has extensive experience in assisting those with domestic violence cases.

• Diana has been a trained rape and domestic violence counselor since 2002.
• She 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.
• She has 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.

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.

Schedule an Intensive with Diana Adams

When Diana visits New York (or your city), you have the opportunity to work intensively with her on an issue for a day, a week or three weeks. Taking this deep dive benefits you by fast-tracking your service and resolution, enabling a more efficient resolution and allows you a significant discount over Diana’s usual hourly rates.

Diana is an experienced mediator and collaborative attorney, and brings her services to New York City for 3-week periods every third month for focused sessions with clients. In between these time periods, Diana is available via phone, email, and videoconference, and makes trips to other cities across the US and Europe, where she is also available for mediation and coaching.

We invite you to sign up for an Intensive Package, in which you and your family members spend several hours either one day, or in several sessions flexibly scheduled over several days or weeks, as fits your calendar. You can get a strong start to work on an issue, and, depending on the nature and complexity of the issue and legal requirements, perhaps even finish the matter with a signed document in just a few weeks. An Intensive Package may be appropriate for a speedy cost-effective resolution for the following matters and more:

Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements

Divorce mediation or consultation, settlement agreement and filing

Polyamorous family agreements about sharing finances, co-parenting, or poly boundaries

Individuals seeking legal counsel or coaching on how to manage communication with a co-parent, divorce issues, polyamory, or other issues. 

Please see our Where In The World Are Diana and Andy? schedule page for a list of times when Diana will be in NYC or other cities  and available for intensive sessions face-to-face. If you need to continue working on your matter during the times when Diana is not in NYC, Diana will be available via email, chat, telephone, and videoconference, and our Associate Attorney Andy Izenson will be available to assist with anything that needs to be taken care of on the ground in New York.

To receive a phone consultation about whether an Intensive Package may be right for you, please email us at Contact@DianaAdamsLaw.net.

Pronouns: She/Her