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- Divorce & Dissolution FAQ - Gay Surrogacy - Adoptions Still Essential		Deborah H. Wald, Esq. is the founder of the Wald Law Group, specializing in Family Formation, Adoption, Divorce and Dissolution legal services. Her goal is to ensure that all individuals, families and children receive the highest quality legal protections available. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Wald Law Group's primary practice areas include Parentage Services, Family Formation, Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Law as well as Divorce, Dissolution, and Contested Parentage Actions. Founded over 15 years ago as a part-time LGBT family formation law practice, the firm has evolved to address the growing legal needs of all contemporary families. A teacher as well as a lawyer, Ms. Wald uniquely blends a practitioner's experience with national and historical perspectives. She is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco law school, where she teaches her own course entitled "Topics in Contemporary Family Law," covering a broad range of cutting-edge family law issues. Her law review article was published in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law in June, 2007. Ms. Wald speaks regularly on contemporary family law issues. Recent venues include the California Women's Commission; the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association; the Family Law Institute of the Center for Judicial Education & Research; the National Association of Council for Children; the International Society of Family Law; and the Family Dispute Resolution Statewide Educational Institutes of the Judicial Council of California's Center for Families, Children and the Courts. Ms. Wald also is an experienced criminal defense attorney, focusing primarily on indigent criminal appeals. As a criminal defense lawyer she has devoted her energy to protecting non-citizens who are facing deportation or exclusion from the United States as a result of their contacts with the criminal justice system. She was a founder of Women Defenders, an organization providing professional, technical and social support networks for female criminal defense practitioners; and she worked as a public defender in Alameda County for 5 years. Ms. Wald is a member of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers and Academy of California Family Formation Lawyers. She is on the Board of Directors of Our Our Family Coalition, the Bay Area's largest LGBT family organization, as well as Circulo de Vida, a non-profit which provides Spanish-language support services to Latinos with cancer. She is the Co-Chair of the National Family Law Advisory Council for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and a member of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association. A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts, Ms. Wald currently resides in San Francisco with her partner and their two sons. Paul W. Thorndal joined the Wald Law Group at the end of 2006. A senior litigation attorney with broad experience in both trial and appellate litigation, Mr. Thorndal has successfully represented numerous clients in state and federal courts throughout California. His case, Alexandria S. v. Pacific Fertility Medical Center (1997) 55 Cal.App.4th 110, is one of the few published cases in California addressing the liability of fertility clinics for negligence and breach of contract in the area of assisted reproduction. Mr. Thorndal also has extensive experience handling litigated claims of employment discrimination and professional negligence, and he has tried cases to jury verdict and represented clients before various California Courts of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit. At the Wald Law Group, Mr. Thorndal specializes in the litigation of marital and non-marital disputes, with a particular concern for the dissolution of non-traditional families. His cases include traditional divorces as well as the dissolutions of both registered and non-registered same sex partnerships. In all dissolution cases, he addresses both division of assets and custody disputes as appropriate. Mr. Thorndal's practice also includes assisted reproductive technology (ART) litigation, disputed guardianships, and contested adoptions, and he is a key contributor to the firm's growing surrogacy practice. Because litigation can be such an expensive and acrimonious process, Mr. Thorndal believes that it is important to work closely with clients to identify the aspects of their cases which can be settled by agreement, and to fight aggressively for his clients in court only where the parties truly cannot agree. In particular, the Wald Law Group provides a variety of legal services related to family law disputes, and Mr. Thorndal's goal is to explore all available alternatives with each client, and then work together to resolve the family law dispute to the client's satisfaction. Mr. Thorndal's unique blend of experience in both family law and civil litigation makes him well suited to handle dissolutions where a significant portion of disputed property was purchased prior to marriage or domestic partner registration. Paul W. Thorndal is a member of the Family Law Practice Section of both the State Bar of California and the Bar Association of San Francisco. He also is a member of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, and the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom; and a past member of the Alameda Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association. Paul obtained his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He and his longtime partner have lived in San Francisco for many years. Home | Assisted Reproduction | Adoption | Divorce & Dissolution | Public Speaking Articles & Publications | About Us | Waldlaw Blog | Upcoming Events | Contact Us DISCLAIMERS: This website is intended to provide general information about selected legal topics. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, and is published for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for specific legal advice or opinions, and the transmission of this information is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship between the sender and the receiver. No reader should act on information contained on this website without obtaining the specific advice of legal counsel. Deborah H. Wald and Paul W. Thorndal are licensed to practice law in the State of California, and do not offer advice as to the laws of any other state.