Adoption Process Led to Lawyer’s Legal Switch : Nancy Miller Salzman’s own experience prompted her to start her own practice in Irvine in that field.

When attorney Nancy Miller Salzman began taking steps to adopt a child, she had no idea she also would end up adopting her current legal specialty.

While still a personal injury litigation lawyer in Long Beach, Salzman and her husband contacted numerous health professionals in their search for a child.

“I found Sarah’s birth family very quickly,” Salzman recalled. “I built this network when I looked for Sarah (now 9) and doctors began sending me patients interested in pursuing adoption.”

Adoption cases slowly became about 10% of Salzman’s practice, so last year she decided to go out on her own as an adoption lawyer.

“I wanted to concentrate on my adoption practice,” said Salzman, 38. “I probably could have done it with my law firm, but I wanted to stay in my home. This would give me a couple of extra hours a day with my children.”

Salzman gave her law firm six months’ notice before she left in January, 1992. In that time, she set up an office on the first floor of her Irvine home and arranged to continue using her former firm’s Long Beach office when needed.

To increase her recognition in the adoption community, she stepped up her involvement with a number of professional legal organizations and began to offer seminars on adoption at local hospitals.

Salzman, who had only worked as a part-time litigator, took a pay cut to work alone. Although she would not discuss her salary, independent adoption costs prospective families an average of between $6,500 and $9,500 for legal fees and a birth mother’s medical expenses, said Diane Michelsen, president of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers.

Salzman has utilized creative ways to keep down her own expenses. For example, in return for the occasional use of office space in a Tustin law firm, she helped out one of the firm’s lawyers with child care.

“If she has a late meeting and can’t pick her children up at school, I pick them up,” she said.

Salzman said she confines her practice to 25 cases at once in order to be accessible to all her clients but still have time to devote to her own family, which now includes a second adopted child--Jesse, 5.

Independent adoption--where a family works with a doctor or lawyer to locate a child to adopt--is gaining increasing popularity over placements through nonprofit or public agencies, Michelsen said. The majority of adoptions of infants in California are independently arranged. (

“The reason that most people turn to independent attorneys is that they will assist in the search (for a child) whereas many agencies will not,” Michelsen said.

Moreover, agencies are faced with many more prospective parents than available children, so they often impose tough criteria. For example, many agencies will reject prospective families if they feel one parent is too old, Salzman said. When birth mothers or potential adoptive families come to Salzman, she asks them to fill out a lengthy questionnaire. Adoptive families also must compose a one-page letter about themselves. Salzman then gives birth mothers information about those prospective families that she feels could make a potential match.

An Orange County family who sought Salzman’s help with an adoption last year said she helped considerably.

“Nancy is more aggressive in adoptions than just putting your name on a list,” said the female legal assistant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “She helped us advertise for a child and she returned our phone calls. A lot of adoption attorneys won’t return your calls for days, but she always called us right back.”

Salzman said many prospective clients confuse adoption with surrogacy, which are two different legal concepts. Surrogacy is a contractual arrangement, she explained, where a woman agrees to bear a child for another couple and often cannot back out of the arrangement once the paperwork is completed. In adoption, a birth mother can change her mind if she decides to raise the child herself or find another family to do it for her.

Although Salzman occasionally handles personal injury litigation for other attorneys in order to keep her skills sharp and to earn extra money, she said she has no regrets about leaving the field.

Adoption “is a happy practice compared to the adversarial practice I was in,” she said. “In adoptions, everyone’s needs are met, and the ultimate outcome is beneficial and good for all parties involved.”

er current practice has also allowed her more time with her family.

“When you do litigation, you’re kind of at the mercy of court time,” Salzman said. “Now I can take the phone to my daughter’s karate practice or my son’s swimming lessons, and my clients can continue to reach me.”