What Does a Surrogacy Attorney Do?

What You Should Know Before You Start

Do the surrogate and intended parents need separate attorneys?

• Yes. Independent legal representation for both sides counts as standard practice, not an option.
• Your surrogate’s attorney looks out for her interests only, separate from your own counsel.
• This protects everyone and keeps your surrogacy agreement enforceable.

When does a surrogacy attorney actually get involved?

• Early, before any medical procedures or medications begin.
• Again midway through the pregnancy, to file for legal parentage.
• Make your attorney one of the first calls, not one of the last.

What happens if we do not have a pre birth order in place?

• Some states allow a post birth order instead, completed after delivery.
• A small number of situations may require a second parent adoption to fully secure parental rights.
• Your attorney will tell you which path applies to your state and situation.

Does our surrogacy agreement still hold if we live in different states?

• It can, but the details depend on where your surrogate lives and where you live.
• Surrogacy law varies a great deal from state to state.
• Experienced legal counsel will confirm your agreement holds up in every relevant jurisdiction.

A surrogacy attorney plays one of the most important roles in your entire journey, even though most intended parents and surrogates have never worked with one before. At Creative Love, we connect you with experienced legal counsel early, so people who do this work every day handle your surrogacy contracts and parental rights. Knowing what your attorney actually does removes a lot of the mystery from this part of the process.

What a Surrogacy Attorney Actually Does

A surrogacy attorney specializes in assisted reproductive technology and reproductive law, a distinct legal practice area from general family law. Their work centers on two things, the surrogacy agreement itself and the legal steps that establish the child’s legal parents.

• Drafting and negotiating the surrogacy agreement between intended parents and the surrogate.
• Making sure both parties have independent legal counsel before anyone signs anything.
• Filing the court paperwork that establishes legal parentage, whether that happens before or after birth.
• Advising on how state law affects your own arrangement.

Drafting and Negotiating Your Surrogacy Agreement

The surrogacy agreement serves as the legal contract between the intended parents and the gestational surrogate. A well drafted agreement spells out each party’s responsibilities clearly, long before pregnancy even begins.

• The surrogate’s responsibilities, including medical appointments and healthy lifestyle expectations during pregnancy.
• The intended parents’ financial obligations, including surrogate compensation and medical expenses.
• What happens in certain contingencies, such as a c section, twins, or a medical complication.
• Confirmation that the surrogate relinquishes parental rights to the child after birth.

Independent Legal Representation for Both Parties

Intended parents and their surrogate each need their own attorney, not a shared one. This goes well beyond formality. It makes a surrogacy agreement enforceable and fair to everyone involved.

• Intended parents typically cover the cost of the surrogate’s independent legal representation.
• The surrogate’s attorney reviews the agreement solely with her interests in mind.
• Both attorneys need real experience in surrogacy law, not just general contract law.

The ASRM’s 2022 committee opinion on gestational carrier practices recommends independent legal counsel for the surrogate, separate from the intended parents’ attorney, as part of a responsible surrogacy arrangement.

Establishing Parental Rights

Beyond the contract itself, a surrogacy attorney handles the court process that legally establishes you as the child’s parents. How this works depends heavily on where you and your surrogate live.

• A pre birth order establishes intended parents as the legal parents before the baby arrives, so the birth certificate reflects proper parentage from day one.
• A post birth order accomplishes the same goal after delivery, in states that do not offer pre birth orders.
• In a smaller number of cases, a non biological parent may need a second parent adoption to fully secure parental rights.

Your attorney will tell you which of these applies in your situation, since state laws on this vary and can even depend on the county involved.

When a Surrogacy Attorney Gets Involved

Legal counsel should enter your surrogacy journey early, well before you assume you need it. Waiting until later in the process limits your attorney’s ability to protect you.

• Before medical screening and medication begin, to draft and finalize the agreement.
• Around the middle of the pregnancy, to begin the parentage court filing.
• Anytime a contingency in the contract, like a medical complication, actually happens.

What a Surrogacy Attorney Does Not Handle

It helps to know the edges of an attorney’s role too, so you know who else to call for the rest of your journey. Your attorney generally does not manage your medical care, your compensation payments, or your day to day communication with your surrogate or intended parents.

• Medical decisions and appointments stay with your fertility clinic.
• Your agency typically handles compensation payments and scheduling.
• Emotional support throughout the journey usually comes from your agency’s case management team.

How to Choose the Right Surrogacy Attorney

Not every family law attorney has real experience with surrogacy. Look for someone whose practice focuses on assisted reproduction, not one who handles it occasionally alongside divorce or custody cases.

• Ask directly how many surrogacy agreements and pre birth orders they have completed.
• Confirm their license and experience in the state where your parentage order will get filed.
• Choose someone who explains things in plain language, not just legal terminology.

Why Families Trust Creative Love

For 20 years, we have matched intended parents, surrogates, and egg donors while making sure the legal side of every journey gets the same careful attention as the medical side. As a full service agency covering both surrogacy and egg donation under one roof, we connect you with experienced surrogacy attorneys from your very first steps.

Our home base in Florida, one of the most surrogate friendly states in the country, gives our families a real legal advantage, paired with close partnerships with leading fertility clinics. Intended parents, surrogates, LGBTQ families, and families building internationally all get the same care, and our matching process stays personal and transparent from application through birth.

If you want to talk through the legal side of your own surrogacy journey, call us at 954-776-9878 or start your application whenever you feel ready.

Continue Exploring Your Surrogacy Journey

For a full walk through of every legal step in order, visit our surrogacy legal process page, or our Florida surrogacy law overview for the state specifics. If you still feel undecided about surrogacy, our surrogacy process overview, surrogate requirements, and surrogacy types pages make good next stops, along with our surrogate FAQ, surrogate compensation, and fees and costs pages for anything we have not covered here.

Ready to move forward as a surrogate? Start your surrogate application or read more about how to become a gestational surrogate in Florida.

If you hope to become a parent, our surrogacy program for intended parents, LGBTQ surrogacy program, and international surrogacy program pages walk through what to expect, and our intended parents application awaits whenever you feel ready. Families exploring egg donation can also visit our egg donor program, egg donor process, and egg donor requirements pages.

You can also read testimonials from families we have worked with, meet the fertility clinics we partner with, or learn more about us and our team. You can also reach us directly through our contact us page.

Frequently Asked Questions