About Robin Elizabeth Pope

When I graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1981, adoptions were closed, surrogacy as a solution to female infertility was a recent development, and assisted reproductive technologies such as gestational surrogacy, egg donations and embryo transfers were newly emerging methods of building your family. As a young lawyer, I clerked for a trial court judge, gaining invaluable courtroom knowledge, then went to work in the area of family law. After personal experience with infertility, my law practice shifted its focus from family law to adoption and family formation law.

For more than 25 years adoption and family formation law has been the primary focus of my law practice. I am one of a small handful of Oregon attorneys whose practice is limited to adoption and ARTs law.

I am a member of the Oregon State Bar (OSB), a Fellow in the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys (“///A”), an invitation-only organization of attorneys throughout the U.S. and Canada who practice and have distinguished themselves in the area of adoption and family formation law, and a charter member of the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys (“AAARTA”), a specialty division of the ///A. In 2009, I co-chaired the annual meeting for the ///A, held in Portland, Oregon.

In addition to representing adoptive parents, birth parents, surrogates and intended parents, for the past 20 years I have represented the position of the Oregon State Bar on adoption and surrogacy issues. During that time I co-authored and successfully lobbied for the passage of legislation governing adult adoptions, helped write and was the primary lobbying voice for Oregon’s adoption counseling statute, and actively lobbied to pass changes to Oregon’s adoption jurisdiction law. In addition, I have served on several statewide work groups which reviewed and revised Oregon’s administrative rules for agency adoptions, independent adoptions, and Oregon’s paternity statutes.

For several years I sat as the Chair Person of the OSB Standing Committee on Adoption and remain a member of that group. From 1990-1999 I served as a Pro Tem Judge in Clackamas County and currently serve as a Pro Tem Judge in Washington County. I have organized and presented to lawyers, prospective adoptive parents and hospital staff at numerous seminars covering adoption and family formation law.

On a more personal note, I’ve been married for over 30 years, raised a son who has successfully spread his wings and flown off to college, volunteered for our local schools, put my hands to work for Habitat for Humanity, and traveled around the U.S., Europe and China. In my spare time I like to bake, knit, walk our mellow Labradoodle Tux (who may be at my office to greet you), and plan future travels.