Adoption

Guiding Families Through Every Path to Parenthood

Adoption is one of the most meaningful ways to build a family — and one of the most legally detailed. At The Cooley Law Firm, we guide adoptive parents, birth parents, and agencies through every step of Nevada’s adoption process with compassion, precision, and deep understanding of the law.

Whether you are adopting through an agency, finalizing a kinship placement, or confirming your existing parentage, our firm provides the legal foundation to ensure your adoption is completed correctly, respectfully, and in full compliance with Nevada law.

Agency Adoptions

Agency Adoptions

Agency adoptions involve licensed child-placing agencies that match adoptive parents with children in need of permanent homes.

We coordinate with the agency to ensure:

All consents, relinquishments, and background clearances meet statutory requirements
Petitions and decrees comply with AB 227 (formerly NRS Chapter 127)
Hearings and finalization proceed smoothly and without delay

Our firm represents adoptive parents, agencies, and occasionally birth parents in creating a process grounded in transparency, dignity, and legal security.

Identified Adoptions

In an identified adoption, the birth and adoptive parents connect directly, often through personal networks or mutual referrals.

We prepare and review all required documents — including specific consents, relinquishments, and adoption petitions — ensuring the placement complies with Nevada’s strict placement laws.

Our focus is protecting both families while keeping the process child-centered and fully lawful.

Close-Family Adoptions

Thanks to AB 227 (83rd Legislative Session, 2025), Nevada now recognizes close-family adoptions as a distinct category.

These adoptions allow parents, stepparents, adult siblings, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles to adopt without agency involvement when the child already lives within the family.

Benefits of this streamlined process include:

No investigation or home-study requirements
Expedited hearings or waiver options
Greater privacy and reduced cost

As a legislative advocate for AB 227, Attorney Shelly Booth Cooley helped shape this law to make adoption more accessible for kinship families — and our firm is uniquely equipped to guide you through it.

Confirmatory Adoptions

A confirmatory adoption is available when parents are already legal parents — for example, through surrogacy, assisted reproduction, or another state’s parentage order — and wish to confirm parentage in Nevada.

This process provides universal recognition of parents and ensures full parental rights across jurisdictions.

Confirmatory adoptions are especially valuable for:

Same-sex couples
Intended parents through surrogacy or assisted reproduction
Families relocating to Nevada

Confirmatory adoptions under AB 227 are efficient, dignified, and are finalized without a hearing.

Dependency Adoptions

For children in the foster care or child welfare system, adoption represents permanency and stability.

We work closely with agencies providing child welfare services to finalize adoptions for foster parents and relative caregivers.

Shelly ensures compliance with all Nevada child welfare procedures, ICWA requirements, and post-adoption reporting — helping families move from temporary care to permanent parenthood with confidence.

Re-Adoptions

A re-adoption confirms in Nevada a child’s adoption that occurred in another country.

Re-adoption ensures that the child’s Nevada birth record and citizenship documentation are consistent and fully recognized.

This step is particularly important for:

International adoptions
Children with amended legal names or citizenship status

We handle all petitions, consents, and decree language to ensure seamless recognition by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Vital Records and Statistics.

Adult Adoptions

Adult adoption provides a formal legal bond — often to recognize a lifelong parent-child relationship, inheritance rights, or emotional connection.

Nevada law also allows the adoption of an adult (age 18 or older) with streamlined filings and no home-study requirement.

The Cooley Law Firm prepares all documents, agreements, and decrees to ensure the adoption is complete and legally sound.

A family of six sitting on the couch together.

Two women sit on a pink backdrop, each embracing a young girl. The woman on the left is pregnant, creating a joyful and nurturing atmosphere.

Post-Adoptive Contact Agreements

Adoption creates a permanent legal relationship between a child and their adoptive parent(s). In some cases, continued contact with a birth parent or relative may serve the child’s best interest.

Nevada law allows for Post-Adoptive Contact Agreements (PACAs) — written agreements that outline the type and frequency of communication or visitation that may occur after the adoption is finalized.

These agreements:

Must be signed by a birth parent before termination or voluntary relinquishment of parental rights or execution of specific consent to adoption.
Must be voluntary and approved by the court before the Decree of Adoption is entered.
Can include contact through letters, photos, updates, or visits, as appropriate for the child’s age and needs.
Are legally enforceable if the court finds they are in the child’s best interest.
May be modified or terminated by agreement of the parties or court order if circumstances change.

At The Cooley Law Firm, we help adoptive and birth families craft PACAs that protect the child’s stability while honoring meaningful connections. Every agreement is approached with care, confidentiality, and the understanding that post-adoption contact works best when it supports the child’s emotional well-being and sense of identity.

Why Families Choose The Cooley Law Firm

Comprehensive Adoption Practice: Experience in every type of adoption — from agency placements to confirmatory parentage.
Legislative Leadership: Shelly Booth Cooley played an active role in drafting and advocating for AB 227, Nevada’s 2025 modernization of adoption laws.
Compassionate Advocacy: We treat every family with respect and every adoption as a celebration of permanence and love.
Efficient Process Management: From petitions and consents to hearings and decrees, we make complex steps feel simple.

Adoption Is Love — Made Legal

Every adoption tells a story of commitment, compassion, and family.

Whether you are welcoming a child through agency placement, confirming your parentage, adopting a relative, or finalizing an adult adoption, The Cooley Law Firm provides the knowledge, care, and legislative insight to make your adoption journey secure and successful.

Contact us today to schedule a consultation with Shelly Booth Cooley, a leading Nevada adoption and family building attorney, Adoption and ART Fellow with the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, and advocate for Nevada’s family building laws, to start your family’s next chapter with confidence.