Service Provider Spotlight – Janna Annest

Over the years, we've cultivated a robust network of trusted adoption service professionals to refer our adoptive families and birth parents to. This series features Q&As with a few of our referrals from across the country.

What is your title & specialty?

I'm a Partner at my practice, which concentrates on adoption and assisted reproduction.

What areas do you serve?

If a birth parent or an adoptive parent resides anywhere in Washington, I can help.

What do you like most about what you do?

Unlike most other legal specialties, adoption is a constructive practice area. We help build families. Adoptive parents consistently blow me away with their open-mindedness, energy, flexibility, optimism, and capacity for love. What a privilege it is to work with clients like that!

What are your hobbies/interests outside of work?

I love running, gardening, reading, painting rocks, theater, and traveling, but because I have young teenagers, my primary outside-of-work activity is driving them places.

What advice do you have for prospective adoptive parents?

Remember that if you want to be parents, you will be parents. It may not be how or when you expected, but as long as you continue on the adoption path, it will lead to a child.

What's your most memorable or rewarding moment from working in adoption?

My most memorable finalization was a Zoom hearing during Covid. The five- and seven-year-old adoptees were big Harry Potter fans. I borrowed Gryffindor robes, used a Hogwarts background, and used my wand to put the judge's signature on the Decree of Adoption. The Decree even had a little burn mark to show where the spell hit it.

Do you have a personal connection to adoption?

We adopted our daughter in 2008 and our son in 2010, both as newborns. I started my adoption practice after our daughter was born, and for our son's adoption, I wore two hats: adoptive mom and counsel for Petitioners.