NANCY D. POLIKOFF

Nancy D. Polikoff is Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law, where she has taught family law for more than 20 years.  Previously, she practiced law as part of a feminist law collective and directed the family law programs at the Women’s Legal Defense Fund.  Since her first article on the custody rights of lesbian mothers more than 30 years ago, she has been an advocate for lesbian and gay families. She helped develop the legal theories in support of second-parent adoption and visitation rights for legally unrecognized parents, and she was successful counsel in In re M.M.D., the 1995 case that established joint adoption for unmarried couples in the District of Columbia, and Boswell v. Boswell, the 1998 Maryland case overturning restrictions on a gay noncustodial father's visitation rights. Her articles have appeared in numerous law reviews, and her history of laws affecting lesbian and gay parenting appears as a chapter in Creating Change: Sexuality, Public Policy, and Civil Rights, edited by John D’Emilio, William Turner, and Urvashi Vaid.
For more information about Nancy Polikoff and her work, visit www.wcl.american.edu/faculty/polikoff.