Email- TErickson@EricksonLaw.net

Phone- 866.759.4994

Theresa M. Erickson is one of the few attorneys in the United States who specializes exclusively in the area of Family Formation Law. During law school she gained a passion for this field. She initially discovered this area of family planning by choosing to become an egg donor for several couples who desperately wanted a child. In doing so, California family planning attorney Theresa M. Erickson helped create numerous children for these families. In addition to her own personal experiences with egg donation, she witnessed a more personal fertility situation - her sister was unable to maintain a successful pregnancy to term. It is through both of these very personal experiences that Theresa M. Erickson's passion developed to become an embryo donation attorney. Theresa M. Erickson's legal practice is dedicated to exclusively provide legal services in the area of creating families and California family planning. Theresa M. Erickson's passion has not gone unnoticed; she is a nationally recognized expert in this specialized and unique area of law. Listed below are the qualifications that have made surrogate law attorney Erickson both experienced and dedicated to helping others. If you are searching through reproductive lawyers and are looking for an attorney with the personal and legal experience necessary to help you through this process, please call our law firm to set up consultation.

Bar Admissions:

• United States Supreme Court
• State Bar of California, 1998
• U.S. District Court Central District of California
• U.S. District Court Southern District of California
• State Bar of Iowa, 1996

Education:


University of San Diego School of Law, San Diego, California J. D.

• Advanced Trial Advocacy Award of Distinction
• Board Member, Pro Bono Legal Aide Society
• Director of Finance, Women's Law Caucus

University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, B. A.

• Summa Cum Laude
• Member, Golden Key National Honor Society
• Member, Phi Beta Kappa
• Member, Phi Kappa Phi

Professional Associations and Memberships:


• Founding Director, Society of Reproductive Professionals
• San Diego Bar Association, Family Law Section
• State Bar of California, Family Law Section
• Professional Member of Resolve
• Professional Member of American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM)
• Professional Member of American Fertility Association (AFA)
• American Bar Association, Family Law and Reproductive Law and Technology Sections

Past Employment Positions:


• U.S. Marine Corps, Staff Judge Advocate, 1994 - 1997
• San Diego, Deputy City Attorney, 1997 - 1999
• California District Attorneys Association, Case Digest Editor

Theresa Erickson profile video

(NY Times) A New Jersey judge has ruled that a gestational surrogate who gave birth to twin girls is their legal mother, even though she is not genetically related to them.

The ruling gives the woman, who carried the babies in an arrangement with her brother and his male spouse, the right to seek primary custody of the children at a trial in the spring.

Theresa Erickson www.ericksonlaw.netThe case illustrates the legal complexities of gestational surrogacy, in which a woman carries unrelated embryos created in a petri dish. A gestational surrogate in Michigan recently obtained custody of twins she carried, but courts in several other states have upheld the rights of people who contracted with gestational surrogates.

In the New Jersey case, the surrogate, Angelia G. Robinson, agreed to have the children in 2006 for her brother, Donald Robinson Hollingsworth, an accountant in Manhattan, and his spouse, Sean Hollingsworth. The embryos were created from anonymous donor eggs and fertilized with sperm from Sean Hollingsworth.

The girls were born in October 2006 and went to live with the Hollingsworths at their home in Jersey City. But in March 2007 Ms. Robinson filed a lawsuit seeking custody, alleging that she had been coerced into the arrangement.

Judge Francis B. Schultz of Superior Court, who ruled in the case in Hudson County, N.J., relied heavily on the precedent established by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1988 in the case of Baby M. The surrogate in that case, Mary Beth Whitehead, carried her own genetic child for another couple after artificial insemination with the man’s sperm. After Ms. Whitehead decided that she wanted to keep the baby, the court ruled that her maternal rights could not be terminated against her will.

“The surrogacy contract,” the Baby M court found, “is based on principles that are directly contrary to the objectives of our laws. It guarantees the separation of a child from its mother; it looks to adoption regardless of suitability; it totally ignores the child; it takes the child from the mother regardless of her wishes and maternal fitness.”

Citing that passage, Judge Schultz wrote, “Would it really make any difference if the word ‘gestational’ was substituted for the word ‘surrogacy’ in the above quotation? I think not.”

Ms. Robinson, of Keansburg, N.J., issued a statement calling the decision “one more step in helping to insure stability and peace in the lives of our girls.”

Ms. Robinson was represented by Harold J. Cassidy, a Shrewsbury, N.J., lawyer who also represented Ms. Whitehead. In a statement, Mr. Cassidy applauded the decision and called surrogacy “an exploitation of women.”

Alan S. Modlinger, the lawyer for Sean and Donald Hollingsworth, said the case was of importance to gay men and lesbians because of their reliance on reproductive technology to have children.

Since 2007, the twins have shuttled back and forth between the Hollingsworths’ home and Ms. Robinson, who has three parenting days a week. A final decision on custody is expected after the trial this spring.

Egg Donation Lawyer Theresa M. Erickson applauds California Governor Schwarzenegger and Assemblyman Marty Block for enacting a statute that will further protect those women who are donating their eggs for infertile couples, in addition to those protections put in place via Proposition 71 for those donating to research. This law would require an advertisement seeking egg donors associated with the delivery of fertility treatment, including assisted oocyte production, to contain a prescribed notice relating to the potential health risks associated with human egg donation.

Theresa Erickson is a surrogacy law expert in San Diego, California and a featured commentator on the LB Network.

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