SHELLEY B. BALLARD

Shelley B. Ballard (formerly Shelley Ballard Bostick) has practiced adoption law since 1988, shortly after becoming a parent by adoption herself. She handled hundreds of adoptions of every category as a solo practitioner before merging her practice with that of her partners in 1995. Shelley helped draft several pieces of legislation affecting adoption in Illinois, including the "Baby Richard Law" enacted in 1994 that created the Illinois Putative Father Registry, and added several safeguards to the Illinois Adoption Act to reduce contested adoptions. For this effort, she was recognized by the Illinois House of Representatives in a formal House resolution. Shelley is a past chair of the Chicago Bar Association Adoption Law Committee and authored the Illinois Bar Journal's lead article in its December 1994 issue, entitled The Baby Richard Law: Changes to the Adoption Act, an article that was instrumental in upholding the constitutionality of the law when it was challenged in the courts. In addition, Shelley wrote the 1998 chapter on adoption law for the Family Law Practice Handbook published by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE). On behalf of RESOLVE of Illinois, Inc., a nonprofit adoption and infertility support group, Shelley helped originate its "ABCs of Adoption" program, an educational program taught several times each year for prospective adoptive parents on the issues and basic procedures involved in forming a family through adoption, and now teaches the "Legal Aspects of Adoption" portion of the ABCs program. She also regularly addresses adoptive parent groups on various legal issues in adoption.

     Shelley relocated to North Carolina in 1998 and operated a solo practice focused on adoption and reproductive technology law until 2002, when she returned to Chicago and rejoined the firm. While in North Carolina, Shelley was involved in the successful 2001 legislative effort to revise North Carolina adoption law to shorten the revocation period for adoption consents, allow openness in agency adoptions and permit advertising by approved adoptive families searching for a child to adopt. She also taught an "ABCs of Adoption" seminar for Central Piedmont Community College and authored several adoption articles that appeared in the Charlotte Parent, Carolina Parent and Carolina Youth Alliance magazines.

     Shelley graduated magna cum laude from the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering in 1979, and cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law in 1987, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif (top 10% of her class). Since 1991, she has been a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, a national organization of attorneys devoted to the ethical and competent representation of parties in adoption and collaborative reproduction matters, and recently served as co-chair of its Interstate Compact Committee. In 2004, Shelley joined the Board of Directors of the On Your Feet Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides assistance to birth parents who have placed children for adoption. She is also a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Adoption Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association.

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