Genie Miller Gillespie

AREAS OF PRACTICE: Adoption Assisted Reproductive Technology Guardianship Mediation Children and families Genie Miller Gillespie has been practicing law since 1993, primarily in the area of adoption, guardianship and assisted reproduction law, and was the President of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys from 2020 to 2022. She has been selected by her peers as a Leading Lawyer and Super Lawyer in Adoption & Reproductive Technology law. Upon her graduation from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in 1992, she clerked for the Honorable Wendell P. Gardner, Jr., of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. In 1993, she returned to Chicago and practiced domestic relations and mental health law for a small firm, before joining the Chicago Bar Foundation as its pro bono director in 1997. In 2001, she started her own practice, focusing on adoption, guardianship, mediation, and issues related to children and families. In addition to her practice, Genie was a co-founder of the Center for Law and Social Work [now Greenlight Family Services], a non-profit agency devoted to developing viable backup plans for older and ill adoptive parents and is the former director of the Child Custody and Adoption Pro Bono Project at the American Bar Association. Genie was one of the guardians ad litem appointed by the Circuit Court of Cook County to represent children in adoption cases for fourteen years.  She also volunteers as a guardian ad litem for minor children in guardianship cases through Chicago Volunteer Legal Services, and represents children seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status through the National Immigrant Justice Center by helping them obtain the necessary predicate orders. Genie has written numerous articles and has presented at multiple seminars about adoption and related issues. She regularly speaks with prospective adoptive parent groups about the adoption process.  She has also trained hundreds of attorneys to handle pro bono adoption and guardianship cases. She is the general editor and a chapter author of the IICLE Adoption Law Manual.