Mark M. Demaray
Mark M. Demaray is President of the American Academy of Adoption
Attorneys. The Academy is comprised of over three hundred lawyers
throughout the United States and Canada, who devote their practices to
adoption and assisted reproductive technology law. As Fellows of the
Academy, its members are involved in promoting their field of law
practice by advocating the competent and ethical handling of all types
of family building cases. Mark attended Seattle Pacific University,
received his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington
and earned his Juris Doctor Degree from Lewis and Clark Law School in
Portland, Oregon. He is an adoptive parent of two children. Mark’s
primary practice for over 30 years has been focused on family
formation and he has assisted with more than 5,000 adoption and
assisted reproduction matters.
Mark has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys
since 1991, served on its Board of Trustees for two terms and has
chaired the Grievance Committee and Membership Task Force. He is also a
founding member and Fellow of the American Academy of Assisted
Reproductive Technology Attorneys. Mark is listed in the
Martindale-Hubbell Directory of Preeminent Lawyers with the highest AV
rating and he was honored as an “Angel in Adoption” by the United States
Congress in 2007.
Mark helped form the Washington State Adoption Council in 1986, a
coalition of those working in the adoption field with the goal of
raising standards of practice and ethics in the adoption community. He
was a member of the Washington State Senate’s Interim Adoption Study in
1989, was appointed to the Washington State Adoption Commission in 1990
and was a member of the Washington State Legislature’s Adoption Study
Panel in 2004. Mark remains very active in the legislative process and
he continues to consult, review and draft state laws on adoption and
assisted reproduction. He frequently speaks at workshops and seminars to
help educate judges, attorneys, other professionals and families on
adoption and ART matters.
