For almost 30 years, Elizabeth Schwartz (pronouns: she/her) has been practicing law and, while her Miami-based firm works with all clients in matters of family formation (adoption, insemination and surrogacy) and dissolution, estate planning and probate, she has been on the forefront of providing crucial legal protections for LGBTQ+ community.

Liz is board certified by the Florida Bar in Adoption Law, is a fellow of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys and serves as an adoption intermediary helping make forever families of all kinds.

She is the author of the book Before I Do: A Legal Guide to Marriage, Gay and Otherwise (The New Press, 2016). She also authored the chapter on “LGBT Issues in Surrogacy” in the Handbook of Gestational Surrogacy, ed. E. Scott Sills (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and the chapter on surrogacy in the book Adoption, Paternity, and Other Florida Family Practice (Florida Bar/LexisNexis, 2024).

Liz served as co-counsel on victorious legal teams challenging the following bigoted Florida laws: “Don’t Say Gay or Trans;” the ban forbidding gays and lesbians from adopting children; the ban against the freedom to marry and; for fair issuance of birth certificates to same-sex married couples.