Estate Planning for same-sex couples in New York just got a lot more interesting.  While marriage equality is certainly welcome in the Empire State, there are now conflicting Federal and State guidelines that must be understood and incorporated into your overall estate plan.  Conflicts between these two governing interests must be resolved as best as possible and your estate plan must be a portable as possible. A comprehensive estate plan must now...

June 19, 2011  New York Times By N. R. KLEINFIELD AT the apartment in Brooklyn where George Russell spends four nights each week, he checked the clock: 7:09 p.m. Wasn’t it 7:05 about 20 minutes ago? Never had time moved so slowly. Was the clock even working? They had tossed the ball around, chased each other, done the book about a bear. Now the dreaded bedtime video. Every night, Griffin, who was 18 months old, insisted on this DVD about race...

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 Beyond (Straight and Gay) Marriage by Nancy Polikoff An Ohio trial judge granted Julie Rowell temporary visitation with the daughter she raised for five years with her former partner, Julie Smith. The child was conceived through donor insemination while the couple was together. When Smith refused to allow the court-ordered temporary visitation, the trial judge held her in contempt of court. Last week, an Ohio appeals...

June 13, 2011 – New York Times By SABRINA TAVERNISE Growing numbers of gay couples across the country are adopting, according to census data, despite an uneven legal landscape that can leave their children without the rights and protections extended to children of heterosexual parents. Same-sex couples are explicitly prohibited from adopting in only two states — Utah and Mississippi — but they face significant legal hurdles in about half...

June 3, 2011 New York Times By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES (AP) — The case of the doctor who lost his license for helping “Octomom” bear the world’s largest-surviving brood of babies has rattled the field of fertility medicine — a $3 billion industry with little regulation. When the Medical Board of California revoked the license of Dr. Michael Kamrava on Wednesday, it was a rare outcome that came more than two years...