Workshop: The Child-Parent Security Act: Everything You Need to Know About This Groundbreaking New Law 

Teresa D. Calabrese, Esq.
Amy Demma, Esq.
Bryan Goldstein, Esq.
Barbara Rothberg, DSW, LCSW

Facilitated by
Jessica S. Rothberg, Esq.

Only REGISTER HERE if you did not register for Part 1

Until the February 2021 enactment of the Child-Parent Security Act (CPSA), New York will remain one of three states in the country with a ban on compensated gestational surrogacy. Under NY law any compensated gestational surrogacy arrangement is against public policy, all contracts regarding gestational as well as traditional surrogacy are unenforceable, financial penalties can be imposed, and felony charges can be considered.

Introduced to the NY Legislature in 2012, the Child Parent Security Act (CPSA) is a comprehensive piece of legislation that regulates compensated and altruistic gestational surrogacy, known and anonymous gamete donation, embryo donation, and parentage proceedings.

The CPSA is a progressive shift for LGBTQ family building by establishing parentage processes by which intended parents, in a donor arrangement, may voluntarily assign parentage at the time of birth of a donor-conceived child(ren).

In addition, the CPSA protects both intended parents and gestational surrogate by creating processes by which the intended parents may be recognized as legal parents, prior to the birth of a child(ren), and The Surrogate’s Bill of Rights incorporated into the CPSA, provides the gestational surrogate with the most comprehensive protections of any surrogacy statute elsewhere in the country.

Please join NYACP and the LGBTQI Family Professionals for a detailed review of the CPSA and learn how this new law will impact the families we all serve through collaborative practice. There will be two 90 minute workshops over zoom. The first on Oct 2nd which will include an LGBTQ language and cultural component; an overview of how NY law currently defines parent and the evolving expansive definition through case law; a brief legislative history of the CPSA; and a review of the CPSA and its impact on LGBTQ family building including donor sperm agreements, recognition of intended and parentage proceedings. In addition, we will discuss the unique issues impacting LGBTQ couples who are separating or divorcing. The second day, October 16th, will focus exclusively on everything you need to know about the CPSA and surrogacy, including the protections for intended parents and the proceeding available prior to the child(ren’s) birth as well as the safeguards in place for gestational surrogates. Both workshops with focus on legal and mental health aspects of the CPSA.

Teresa Calabrese is a mediator and collaborative lawyer concentrating her practice on serving the Queer community. Teresa assists individuals, couples and families in creating agreements relating to relationship formation, family building, and separation and divorce. Teresa also handles second parent adoption matters and provides basic estate planning services.

Teresa has facilitated legal informational workshops for the LGBT Community Services Center, Queens Public Library and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Teresa has presented LGBTQ CLE programs for the New York Association of Collaborative Professionals, the Family and Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York, the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, and CUNY School of Law Community Legal Resource Network,

Teresa is a founding member of the LGBTQI Family Professionals of NYC and co-chair of the Family and Matrimonial Law Committee of the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York. Teresa is also a member of the Family and Divorce Mediation Council of Greater New York, the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, and the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation.

Jessica S. Rothberg, Esq. has been in private practice as a family and divorce mediator for over 20 years and has received extensive mediation and collaborative practice training,  including through the Center for Family and Divorce Mediation, The Ackerman Institute for the Family, and the Center for Understanding in Conflict. Jessica is an Advanced Practitioner member of the Association for Conflict Resolution, an Accredited Member of the New York State Council on Divorce Mediation, a member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators, the NY Association of Collaborative Professionals and the LGBTQ Professionals of NYC.

Jessica dedicates much of her professional career to training and mentoring aspiring mediators and collaborative practitioners through independent apprenticeships and has also served as a panelist and/or guest lecturer at various mediation and collaborative trainings throughout New York.

Continuing Education Credits will be provided:
1.5 CLE credits for each day
1.5 CFP credits for Part 2 only

Program Registration:
Members: Free 
Non-Members: $49.00