Stepparent Adoption & Adult Adoption Attorney, Randall Hicks

• 36 years of experience - practice limited to only adoption cases.
• 150+ five-star client reviews and the highest rating of "10" on Avvo.
• Rated AV "preeminent" by Martindale-Hubbell,  the highest possible rating and achieved by only the top 10% of attorneys nationwide.
• Five-star Yelp and Google ratings.
• A+ BBB rating.
• Member of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers (ACAL).
• Leading author on adoption and stepparenting.
• Profiled on Wikipedia as an attorney and author.

Hello, I'm Randall Hicks and I'm an adoption attorney. I focus on step parent adoption and adult adoption. Unlike most family law lawyers (who just dabble in adoption and do 99% divorce and child custody), I have limited my practice to adoption for 36 years. My goal is to make both step parent adoptions and adult adoptions fast, economical and worry-free. Stepparent adoptions are usually completed in 3-4 months start-to-finish when the absent parent is consenting, and adult adoptions usually only take 2-3 months.

I love being a stepparent and adult adoption lawyer and believe I do a good job for all my clients. I am in the latter years of my career and have scaled down my law practice. While most attorneys try to appear "big time," as I've become older I'm proud of my law practice now being "small." When I first opened my law office in Orange County right out of Pepperdine Law School, I was a one-man office. I did everything. Me and only me. And I loved it. As years went by, I was fortunate to become successful. My staff grew, I expanded to include an international adoption program in Ukraine, as well as multiple offices, and I wrote several popular adoption/parenting books that were featured on The Today Show and CBS This Morning, as well as other national TV shows that are no longer on the air, like Sally Jesse Raphael, John & Leeza from Hollywood, Mike & Maty and The Home Show. I hosted the 1991 PBS series, Adoption Forum. My daughter and I recently co-authored a novel, The Girl Without a Face. It's funny, insightful and empowering. If you love to read I hope you will check it out.

Then several years ago I realized I was burning the candle at both ends. I still loved the adoption field, just not on the scale I was doing it. So I stopped doing what had been a big part of my practice - newborn and international adoption - and let my staff go, and have reverted back to how my law practice was when I first started out . . . when I actually enjoyed it the most, personally knowing each client and having plenty of time on each case. Now, I keep things small by limiting my practice to adult adoptions, and only to cases where I believe the clients and I are a good fit. I think I must have the most narrowly defined adoption practice imaginable. For stepparent of minor children cases, as is explained on the Stepparent Adoption page of this website, all cases are sent to my friend and fellow adoption attorney, Allen Hall (you can still use the Questionnaire on this site and it will go to him).

On the personal side, I have two children (now adults) and I'm proud they are brave people contributing to the world. (My daughter is a teacher in Asia, and my son an aspiring filmmaker.) The highlight of my life has been raising my children and watching them grow up. I'm sure for you with your family, it is the same. It would be an honor for me to help you formalize your family through adult adoption.