modern family formation & dissolution • estate planning & probate • divorce

who we are

elizabeth f. schwartz, esq.

Based on Lincoln Road, Elizabeth Schwartz is in her 15th year of law practice. Elizabeth is an AV Rated attorney, which is awarded by Martindale-Hubble LexisNexis and identifies a lawyer with high legal ability, expertise, experience, integrity and overall professional experience. Elizabeth’s practice emphasizes representation of the LGBT community in family formation (adoption, insemination, surrogacy) and dissolution matters. Her practice has a focus on estate planning and probate matters and she lectures locally and nationally about the importance of gay couples protecting their loved ones through estate planning and contract. Elizabeth was a contributor to the recently-published book “Making It Legal: A Guide to Same-Sex Marriage, Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions,” by Frederick Hertz, Esq.

Also a certified family mediator and a member of the Collaborative Family Law Institute, she treats the law as a therapeutic profession, helping clients protect their families and facilitating relationship dissolution with minimal investment of emotional and financial resources.

She is chair of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association of South Florida and a member of the National Family Law Advisory Council of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She has served as pro-bono counsel in several cases seeking to overturn Florida’s uniquely bigoted 1977 ban forbidding gays and lesbians from adopting children. Elizabeth is a founding member of the Aqua Foundation for Women, raising money by and for South Florida's lesbian community.

Elizabeth serves as President-Elect of the Miami Beach Bar Association and is the Chair of the City of Miami Beach’s Human Rights Committee. She is the Parliamentarian of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Women’s Philanthropy.

For her years of service, Elizabeth was honored with the 2005 Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Community Award, the 2007 Dade County Bar Association Sookie Williams Award, the 2007 Aqua Foundation for Women Leadership Award, and the 2008 “Valuing Our Families” Community Award, presented by Sunserve in recognition of outstanding service to the GLBT Families. Elizabeth also received the 2010 Women Worth Knowing Award from the City of Miami Beach Commission for Women. In 2011, Equality Florida, the largest statewide gay rights organization, honored her with the Voices for Equality Award. In 2012, Elizabeth was tapped for membership into Iron Arrow, the highest honor attained at the University of Miami.

A native of Miami Beach, she received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. She received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Miami, in 1997. A lefty and a Scorpio, she lives with her partner, Lydia Martin and their dog, Buttercup, in downtown Miami's urban core.

elizabeth's professional memberships

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elizabeth's honors and recognitions

kira e. willig, esq.

Kira E. Willig is in her eleventh year of practicing marital and family law in Miami-Dade County.  Kira represents parties in actions concerning dissolution of marriage, child-related issues when the parties did not marry, modification of spousal or child support, enforcement actions, and prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.  Kira also assists parties in amicably resolving their family law issues as a Supreme Court of Florida Certified Family Mediator and member of the Collaborative Family Law Institute.  She is frequently court-appointed to serve as a Guardian ad Litem for children whose parents are in divorce or domestic violence proceedings.

An adjunct faculty member of the University of Miami School of Law since January 2007, Kira teaches Family Law, and team taught a Family Law Litigation workshop.  Kira has twice been selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers - Rising Stars Edition, and was honored as a Top 40 attorney under 40 in Miami-Dade County by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Kira graduated from Miami Southridge Senior High School and received a degree in Women's Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University.  Kira then attended the University of Miami School of Law on a full scholarship where she was an Associate Editor of the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review. Upon graduating magna cum laude in 2000, Kira was named to the Order of the Coif, a national honor society that recognizes outstanding academic achievement in the study of the law.

Kira enjoys attending Hurricane and Dolphin football games.  She is the left-handed sibling to her twin brother, Sander Galt, a Miami-based furniture designer and builder and Vizcaya restorer who is the lead singer and guitarist for Axe and the Oak.  Both were born in Coral Gables on New Year's Day.

kira's certifications and professional memberships: Show || Hide

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robert j. hanreck, esq.

Robert J. Hanreck is currently in his eleventh year of law practice.  Robert focuses his practice on products liability, personal injury, consumer law, family law, professional malpractice and commercial litigation.  Robert has been recognized by his peers in Florida Trends Magazine on numerous occasions and in Florida Super Lawyers Magazine as a Rising Star.  He spent in excess of six years at one of Florida's most prestigious law firms, Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell, P.A. before establishing his own firm.

Robert graduated from the University of Miami School of Law, magna cum laude, in 2000, where he was an Associate Editor of the University of Miami Business Law Review and represented the law school at several national moot court competitions in negotiation and mediation.

jerry simon chasen, esq.

Jerry Chasen is an estate planning attorney with 35 years of experience. Admitted to the bar in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and California, he has a Master's degree in estate planning from the University of Miami School of Law, where he was also on the adjunct faculty in the graduate estate planning and taxation programs. His practice focused on estate & charitable gift planning, estate administration & probate, intellectual property, and small business corporations.

Jerry left the full-time practice of law to serve as Vice President of the Alliance for Global Good, a non-profit organization. The Alliance is a grant-making and fundraising philanthropy that convenes and coordinates programs and organizations that give a priority to innovation and collaboration in order to increase their impact and efficiency. Jerry also created The Advisors Project, an initiative that encourages professional advisers to create client relationships that are both satisfying to clients and advantageous for philanthropy, as a means for growing resources going to philanthropy.

Past President of the Miami-Dade County Planned Giving Council and longtime member of the Council's Board of Directors, Jerry served as a member of the national Board of Directors of Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. He on the Professional Advisory Committee of the Foundation of Jewish Philanthropies, the United Way of Miami-Dade County, and the Miami Foundation, and is also chair of the Miami Foundation's LGBT Community Projects Fund Committee.