Jeanne Tate | Tampa Adoption Lawyer

• Board Certified in Adoption Law.
• Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida College of Law where she taught Adoption Law and Procedure.

• Best Lawyers in America
• Florida’s Legal Elite
• Florida Super Lawyers (Top 100 Lawyers in Florida)
• U.S. Congressional Angel in Adoption Award
• Tampa Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Leader of the Year
• Florida Adoption Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award
• Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers (HAWL) Achievement Award
• Tobias Simon Pro Bono Service Award (the highest statewide pro bono award given by the Florida Supreme Court)
• Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers

Our firm is grateful for the opportunity to be involved in creating families with each and every adoption matter that we handle. We handle every faucet of adoption and a significant portion of our practice involves contested adoption litigation. It is beautiful to see those cases resolve, prioritizing the stability and security of a child, through our ongoing collaborative efforts. Additionally, we have the privilege of assisting in many relative adoptions where the relative has cared for the child for many years. It is an honor to advocate for those families to receive the post-adoption services that they need and see everything come to fruition. One such case recently finalized, and after many months of advocacy, we joyfully attended the finalization hearing for a grandmother who adopted several grandchildren and had the requisite post-adoption services in place to ensure the children received what they needed to thrive following the adoption.

Adoption is a very unique area of law that requires undivided attention and a specific skill set. By dedicating our firm's practice to the exclusive areas of adoption and surrogacy law decades ago, we were able to excel and become specialized in these fields. We have been involved in helping craft statutes, meeting with legislatures to influence adoption policy,educating judges, conducting seminars to train other lawyers, and obtain in depth experience with thousands of cases, which allowed us to stand apart from other attorneys who dabble in the adoption realm.

Experience,competency, trustworthiness, honesty and promptness in response. Our firm is routinely hired to "clean up" adoptions gone awry. While it is our joy to get these adoptions back on track, prioritizing experience at the outset can prevent many challenges that could otherwise arise in an adoption. Jeanne T. Tate, P.A. has offices throughout the State of Florida and works with expectant mothers and adoptive families all over the country and in some parts of the world.

While the law should be interpreted uniformly throughout the state, knowing the judges, the local rules of the circuit and the acceptance or rejection of arguments made in the past, is a huge component of a case's success.

We can discuss adoption generally and what potential options exist. For specific or detailed legal advice, however, we should be retained for a formal consultation.

We always do a conflicts check, so we need names and dates of birth of all parties involved. Additionally, we need to know if there is a prior case involving the child that could impact jurisdiction.

Experience. Nearly all of our attorneys are members of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys and/or board certified in adoption. Our firm has had the privilege of finalizing thousands of adoptions since the firm was started in 1999. From the beginning, the firm and its clients have been supported by a group of paralegals and legal assistants with an exceptional level of competency and professionalism.

Seeing a birth mother's lovingly-created adoption plan effectuated and witnessing the beautiful emotion of adoptive parents as the adoption is granted in the final hearing.

Boating, water activities and grandchildren!

Our firm is extremely involved in a myriad of causes including Gift of Adoption, the American Heart Association and Pro Bono Legal work . Jeanne Tate was honored by the Florida Supreme Court with the Tobias Simon Award for her pro bono service. She also was recently given a key to the City of Tampa by Major Jane Castor for her outstanding contributions to the field of adoption. The firm has long been devoted to pro bono service. The firm handles most of the indigent adoption cases from Bay Area Volunteer Legal Services ("BAVLP"). Members of the law firm serve as mentors to BAVLP's pro bono attorneys and to Bay Area Legal Services' attorneys and staff.