RETIRED
Michele Zavos has almost 40 years of experience as an attorney in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She works very closely with her clients and is known for her creativity and passion when helping her clients solve problems. Clients have said she treats their cases as if they were her own, and many clients return to work with her over the entire course of their lives. She does not offer cookie-cutter solutions, but instead listens carefully to a client’s situation and works with them to create a solution tailored to them.
Michele works primarily in the areas of adoption, parenting, assisted reproductive technology, estate planning, family formation, divorce and dissolution, mediation, and probate matters. Her practice is particularly focused on developing legal protections for families, including families headed by same-sex couples. She has gone through many of the same family law issues that her clients face and, therefore, relates to her clients on a personal level.
Michele was counsel to Jessica Port in the landmark case, Port v. Cowan, which established that Maryland must recognize marriages between same-sex couples that were validly entered into in another jurisdiction. Michele was instrumental in changing the law in the District of Columbia so that adoptions can be granted solely based on the birth of a child in the District. She also helped amend the D.C. divorce law so that couples married in D.C. who were later unable to divorce in their home jurisdictions may return to D.C. to divorce. Clients have said that if Michele cannot find a way to help a client within the current legal system, she will create it.
Specialization(s): Family Law, Adoptions, Estate Planning, Wills
