Law Firm Overview

The law firm of Claiborne, Outman & Surmay, P.C. is a professional corporation composed of three partners: attorneys Ruth F. Claiborne, James B. Outman, and Lori M. Surmay; and one associate attorney, Amy K. Wallas. Our primary mission is to serve clients throughout the process of planning, creating, and securing families through adoption, other planned long-term care-giving arrangements, or through assisted reproductive technology (referring to medical intervention and to the assistance of other parties such as donors and/or surrogates). Wherever you are in forming your family or caring for children, we would like to help you reach your goal.
When a spouse, partner, or child is added to the family, it becomes more important to secure the family's future by estate planning, including making or revising a will. Our estate plans provide specifically for adoption and reproductive technology where applicable, such as by including expressions of intent regarding frozen embryos. If your family includes a member with special needs, we will develop an individualized estate plan tailored to provide security, such as a special needs trust.

We are pleased and proud to be of service to a diverse clientele, doing all we can to meet the needs of today's families.

Our predecessor law firm, Ruth F. Claiborne, P.C., was incorporated by Ruth Claiborne in 1984, to practice mediation, adjudication (as an arbitrator, administrative law judge, and magistrate judge), legislative consulting to non-profit and professional associations, and to address issues related to families and children. The practice evolved throughout the 1990's as it focused more and more on adoption and related matters.

The firm expanded in 1998 with the association of Lori M. Surmay, who formerly practiced as a criminal defense attorney and then served as staff attorney for five years to Judge Hilton M. Fuller in the Superior Court of DeKalb County .

In January 2001, Ruth and Lori were joined by Jim Outman to form Claiborne, Outman & Surmay, P.C. Jim came to the firm following twenty-nine years of experience in adoption, estate planning, and leadership in drafting Georgia 's adoption statutes. Most recently, during the fall of 2007, Amy Wallas joined the firm as an associate attorney following her graduation from William & Mary School of Law. For more information on each of the attorneys, please see the pictures and individual biographies found on our website home page.

We are ably and enthusiastically supported by senior paralegal Toni Treadway and financial manager Marcia Allen. Toni will likely speak with you before your initial appointment. She can answer many of your inquiries and refer other questions to one of the attorneys. Marcia efficiently handles the firm's financial matters, including client billing. Call Marcia with any of your billing questions or concerns.

From the beginning, this firm has been built on its members' unique interests in and commitments to innovative practice and significant involvement in public policy. We are committed to providing creative, personalized services to our clients, and adhering to high standards of ethics and professionalism. We believe personal attention is especially important given the nature of our practice. Our services are individually designed to meet unique client needs as they arise.

We believe in the value of information, so we encourage prospective clients to come in for an initial, often comprehensive, consultation covering a number of options for family building. Some clients are ready to move forward along a chosen path, such as foster parenting, adoption, or surrogacy. In such cases, the initial meeting provides an opportunity for planning that should not be missed. We also recognize that situations may arise suddenly and unexpectedly. Thus, we stand ready to counsel you and take action on short notice. To that end, we offer accessibility to our clients; we provide not only our business telephone numbers (including voice mail) and e-mail addresses, but also our home and after-hour contact numbers so that we can be contacted during business hours and also at night and on weekends if necessary.

We strive to offer a balance between providing education and guidance while listening to your concerns and developing the best plan based on your unique circumstances. We do our best to provide a comfortable environment for you and your family and we will communicate with you thoroughly and candidly throughout our work with you. We commit ourselves to client and community education. By educating you, we hope to make you feel more secure and calm through a process that may, at first, seem overwhelming and intimidating. We like to say that we will worry on your behalf, so that you can enjoy building and protecting your family.

We feel passionately about our work and we hope that you find our enthusiasm evident in the amount of care and energy we devote to each case. We love both the process of building families and the variety of positive outcomes in which we are privileged to participate.

Areas of Practice

• Adoption
• Assisted Reproduction
• Estate Planning

West Practice Categories

Estate Planning, Adoption