Pride flag flies from Univ’s flagpole (2021)

On Thursday 11 February a joint JCR/WCR/SCR common room evening was held to celebrate LGBT+ History Month, with John Weltman (1979, History), lawyer and founder of the largest surrogate parenting agency in America, discussing “Establishing Parental Rights for LGBT+ Families in American and European Nations”. John and his partner of 38 years were the first gay couple to have children through surrogacy in the United States..

Before founding The Weltman Law Group in 2010, John was a partner at Lawson & Weitzen, and before that a partner at Shafner & Gilleran (now Pepe & Hazard). He has more than 30 years of experience in complex commercial disputes, insurance coverage litigation, employment law, and real estate litigation. He has particular expertise in the representation of appraisers, dealers, galleries, and artists artists including disputes involving art fraud, forgeries, dealer malpractice and recovery of stolen art work.

In 1995, after four years spent handling ART contracts and litigation, John founded a full-service surrogate parenting agency, which was incorporated in 2001 as Circle Surrogacy. Circle is now the largest surrogate parenting agency in the world with the highest number of babies born per year. John was the first to establish the right of couples to secure insurance coverage for gestational surrogacy in Massachusetts. He has repeatedly obtained pre-birth orders, step-parent, second-parent and single parent adoptions for heterosexual and same-sex couples as well as singles having children through surrogacy. He also works closely with lawyers from six continents and over 73 countries to help families get legal recognition of their children in their home countries.

You can listen to, or download, the conversation below.

To learn more about John Weltman and Circle Surrogacy visit circlesurrogacy.com

Photo: Thanks to Dr Laura Varnam, Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature

Published: 24 February 2021

Explore Univ on social media