Donna Medina concentrates her practice on domestic relations law, drawing from more than 32 years of experience in civil litigation.
Representing both men and women in divorce and complex family disputes, Donna helps families resolve disputes involving child custody, parenting time, child and spousal support, property settlement, division of assets, change of domicile, change of school district, and parent-child reunification. Understanding how divorce changes lives forever, she guides her clients, especially those with children, through the separation and divorce process with the least amount of animosity and acrimony possible, involving psychologists and social workers, accountants, financial advisors, and mediators when appropriate.
Donna also counsels clients on family planning, private adoptions, adoptions through State of Michigan, and guardianships, appearing in court on behalf of parents and children when conflicts arise. She is one of few Michigan attorneys with extensive experience in contested direct placement adoptions and has successfully represented many prospective adoptive families and birth mothers terminate the parental rights of putative fathers under the Michigan Adoption Code and legal parents under the Juvenile Code.
Family disputes require patience and perspective, and Donna assesses situations from all angles to achieve both current and long-range outcomes, listening to the client’s immediate needs while crafting positive, sustainable solutions. When a marriage relationship deteriorates to the point where courtroom litigation is the only viable option, she works tirelessly to include the client in all facets of case preparation and decision making.
Donna’s dedication to her clients is matched only by her commitment to the important causes she supports. She has volunteered as an attorney at Turning Point, an organization committed to improving the lives of domestic violence and sexual assault victims, and she has also served on the Board of Directors of both Community Treatment Centers in Detroit, an organization that assists recently released prisoners transition back to society, and Project Rehab, which helps persons afflicted by alcoholism and substance abuse issues in the Grand Rapids area. Donna is a certified family law mediator. She also volunteers her services with the Wayne County Child Support Help Program sponsored by the Booth Legal Aid Clinic and the Wayne County Domestic Dispute Resolution Center and has been a guest lecturer at Cooley Law School presenting classes in adoption and paternity.
Donna is a contributing author to the publication, “Kids Caught In The Middle: How Families Are Harmed When Judges Don’t Follow The Law,” written by family law appellate counsel, Liisa R. Speaker. She was the trial attorney in two adoption cases and trial and appellate counsel in the related paternity cases that were reversed and remanded in 2019. As a result of the Michigan Supreme Court's orders in In re MGR, Sarna v Healy and In re LMB, all decided in June 2019, Donna was able to finalize the adoptions of two children, after three full years of extensive litigation. She recently assisted a child placing agency finalize an adoption following two remands from the Michigan Court of Appeals. She is also frequently consulted by other family law attorneys with adoption-related substantive and procedural questions.
Donna received a bachelor’s degree in business administration, summa cum laude, from Wayne State University, but opted to pursue a career in law after recognizing that her true passion was to help families whose lives were affected by unforeseen challenges, particularly those involving children. She attended Wayne State University Law School in the evening while working full-time as a paralegal during the day.
Donna recently participated in the Oakland County Bar Associations' Inns of Court program for two consecutive years. She is also an active member of the State Bar of Michigan’s Family Law and Litigation Sections, the Adoption and ART subcommittee of the Family Law Section, the American Bar Association, the Oakland County Bar Association, and the Oakland County Boat Club, for which she served as one of its few female Commodores.
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