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JANNA J. ANNEST is an adoption attorney at Mills Meyers Swartling in Seattle, Washington. She earned her J.D. degree, with honors, from the University of Washington School of Law in 2003 and has practiced with the law firm of Mills Meyers Swartling since that time. During law school Ms. Annest served as the notes and comments editor of the Washington Law Review. She graduated cum laude and with high honors from Dartmouth College in 2000 and was a visiting student at Oxford University. Ms. Annest currently serves as president of the Dartmouth Alumni Club of Western Washington and on the board of Adoptive Friends & Family of Greater Seattle (AFFGS). She was named a "Rising Star" by Washington Law and Politics magazine in 2009 and 2010. Ms. Annest also is an adoptive parent. She is a member of the King County and Washington State bar associations. JOYCE S. SCHWENSEN is a sole practitioner in Seattle, where her areas of practice include adoption law, general practice, real estate and business law. Ms. Schwensen is the executive director of Adoption Assistance and Homestudy Services, a licensed Washington State adoption agency. She earned her B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Washington State and her J.D. degree from the University of Washington. Ms. Schwensen is a member of the Seattle-King County, Washington State and American bar associations. BARBARA J. WECHSLER has been a sole practitioner and mediator for more than 25 years, where her expertise is in family law, adoption and legal issues of reproductive technologies, with an emphasis in assisting gay and lesbian clients in creating legally protected relationships with children through adoption, assisted reproduction and surrogacy. Ms. Wechsler was one of the first attorneys to obtain approval of second-parent (1988) and tri-parent (1996) adoptions in King County. She has been a presenter at more than fifteen family law CLE seminars, including presentation on second-parent adoptions at a 2006 judicial conference. Ms. Wechsler was one of eight attorneys who established Volunteer Attorneys for Persons with AIDS (VAPWA), a program now sponsored by the King County Bar Association. She is a prior board member and chair of the Family Law Committee of the Northwest Women's Law Center (now Legal Voices). Ms. Wechsler earned her undergraduate degree from New York University and her J.D. degree from Columbus School of Law, Catholic University, in Washington D.C.
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