David Keene Leavitt
I have lived in California all my life, graduated from Stanford University in 1951, and the Stanford Law School in 1953. After serving in the Army overseas, I opened my own law practice in Beverly Hills in 1956, and have been there ever since. My first adoption came in 1960, and about 9000 more followed.

Since my adoption practice began, I have actively promoted better adoption laws before the California legislature and Congress of the United States.

I am currently a Fellow of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers and a founder and former trustee of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

I have served on the Judicial Evaluation Committee of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, have received the highest rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Directory of American Lawyers, and have been listed annually in The Best Lawyers in America.

Beyond My Practice
Since my adoption practice began In 1961, I have worked to make adoptions easier, safer and more satisfying, not just for my clients, but for people in California, the United States and throughout the world.

In addition to working as a practicing attorney, I have worked as an educator, a policy-maker, and an expert in my field. I have appeared before legislative and congressional committees, lectured at law schools and published articles in legal periodicals explaining and advocating the importance of birth mother participation in the placement process.

As a Policy Maker
In 1987, I was selected by the Commissioner of the United States Children's Bureau to serve on a congressionally mandated committee to formulate a nationwide program of adoption and foster care information.

Likewise, I was invited by the Department of State to serve on an advisory committee helping to formulate the Hague Convention on International Adoption.

And, during the last years of the 1980's, I co-authored the Model Adoption Act, on which the American Bar Association based its proposals for unified adoption laws nationwide.

As an Educator
In 1989 I was an original co-author of the standard text for lawyers in the field entitled Adoption Law and Practice.

I presented a course throughout California entitled Counseling Clients in Independent Adoptions. Presented under the auspices of the State Bar of California in 1980, the course provided many of California's adoption specialists with their basic training in adoption law and procedure.

As an Expert in my Field
I served as president of the Medical-Legal Society of Southern California, as vice-chairman of the State Bar Committee on Adoptions, and on the Executive Committee of the American Bar Association Adoptions Committee.

I am currently a Fellow of the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers and a founder and former trustee of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

I'd like to think that my efforts, commencing so long ago, have made adoptions better, safer and easier for adopting parents and birth parents alike.