It's no secret that Sheppard Law is a staunch advocate for Louisiana LGBTQIA+ rights and a St. Tammany Parish LGBT lawyer in Slidell. We have been since our inception as a Slidell LGBT ally law firm, but even more so in the last few years. We refer our LGBTQIA+ clients to allies for other services (we will vet them before giving you their information)
But advocacy is more than just Pride month advertising, pronouns, and saying "folx". Amber (she/her) has helped form LGBTQIA+ nonprofits and serves as legal counsel for multiple in Louisiana.
We work hard to keep your chosen families intact and protected, to the best of our ability. We can never guarantee what a Louisiana judge or a Mississippi judge will do, but we can talk to our network of LGBTQIA+ attorneys and give it our absolute best. Sometimes this means we use other tools to make sure your wishes are kept.
Here are some of the services we offer as a Northshore Louisiana LGBT lawyer to protect y'all:
This includes Louisiana "second parent" adoption (though this isn't the term here in Louisiana, but it's the best way for me to describe it). This is where parent 1 had the child (or previously adopted the child) and parent 2 wants to establish legal rights to the child.
Many chosen families elect for adult adoptions once a minor turns 18. This is often the case where the partners are not married or the biological parent may object and there is not a way to get a termination of rights prior to 18.
There are nuances here and the law reads "husband and wife", but I am listing this here in case you fall on the spectrum.
This is for married and unmarried partners that allows you to give legal rights for them to make decisions, take care of your affairs (while living) and transfers ownership and "custody" (tutorship if no adoption occurred while living) of your children. We can do this during pregnancy in anticipation of childbirth (and of course, after as well). Our blended family blog article may help explain why this is important.
This is where we do a prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreements, or other contracts that give you and your partner joint-ownership in property (physical or bank accounts, IRAs, etc). This coincides with inheritance rights and may be something in conjunction with an LGBT adoption or will.
We can create a new family last name, change one parent to another parent's last name, change first names, or change your name to alleviate deadnaming for our transgender friends. We include your pronouns in our orders.
Of course, ALL of our services are LGBTQIA+ friendly. We don't rainbow wash here. In fact, we fully support our local LGBT+ nonprofits like Connect Northshore and Queer Northshore.
There are consequences if you do not have inheritance rights in place for your family or die without a will (intestate), depending on your situation. This is true for non-LGBTQIA+ folx, but I can't stress enough the importance of you getting this in place.
Whether you are looking for a Lesbian rights attorney Slidell, Gay rights attorney Slidell, LGBT adoption Slidell, or Slidell trademark lawyer, we are here and ready to rock and roll. Yes, those are key term strings to help folx find us. Does it make sense grammatically? No. But it's what folx search so I got 'em.
We can also handle LGBTQIA+ estate planning, like wills, powers of attorney, and successions/probate. Some other areas that may interest our LGBTQIA+ community?
Feel free to give our assistant Brielle a call or text us at985-265-7069 to get pricing information or schedule an affordable paid consultation meeting request here.
For my LGBT clients getting an adoption, we donate a portion to a 501(c)(3) LGBTQIA+ nonprofit of your choice.
This article was originally published 11/18/2024 and is copyright and intellectual property of Amber Sheppard and Sheppard Law PLLC. Please do not take action or refrain from taking action without first speaking to a licensed attorney who knows your set of facts.
