Adoption Lawyer Out

Alaine Griffin

The Hartford Courant

MIDDLETOWN - A Westport lawyer who helped place thousands of foreign orphans with American families has been barred from handling future adoptions amid accusations that she was unprofessional and failed to return money to clients, a Superior Court judge ruled this week.

Judge Robert L. Holzberg ordered on Wednesday that Maria Tomasky's law license be suspended for 120 days beginning Oct. 1. Tomasky, who agreed at an April disciplinary hearing to give up her adoption law career, must also give full refunds to any current adoption clients and transfer her files to them.

In nine separate grievances filed with the Statewide Grievance Committee since March 2004, Tomasky was cited for "lack of attention" to and "lack of communication" with clients and for not paying back the tens of thousands of dollars the families spent on what they said was an emotionally exhausting and painful process of becoming parents.

Tomasky "failed the most fundamental obligation of an attorney - the duty of candor and honesty. That failure acted as an accelerant, increasing the pain and hurt of hopeful parents who were especially vulnerable after, in many cases, years of unsuccessful attempts to have children," Holzberg wrote.

Holzberg said he did consider Tomasky's lack of prior disciplining, "absence of a dishonest or selfish motive," her cooperation with the state's disciplinary board and testimonies from several clients who were satisfied with her work.

When she resumes her work as a lawyer following the 120-day suspension, Tomasky, 57, of Fairfield, must meet for two years with an experienced member of the state bar who will serve as her mentor, according to Holzberg's reprimand.

On Thursday, Tomasky's attorney, David P. Atkins of Bridgeport, said his client "accepts the court's disciplinary order."

At a Superior Court hearing in April, four families recounted heartbreaking stories of stalled - and in some cases unrealized - foreign adoptions in which Tomasky, a Polish immigrant, served as an intermediary between her clients and foreign governments and child placement services.

Tomasky's adoption work was successful during the 1980s and 1990s, resulting in the placement of more than 2,000 children, according to court testimony. One client who spoke at the hearing called Tomasky "a little angel from Poland" who helped him adopt his son and daughter.

But in the late 1990s and 2000, foreign adoptions became more difficult as governments, particularly in Eastern Europe, began imposing restrictions.

In his reprimand, Holzberg said "there is almost a direct correlation between the number and frequency of complaints by her clients and the deepening restrictions on adoptions in those Eastern European countries that had been the source in previous years of Tomasky's clients' adoptions."

Holzberg cited Tomasky as being "unresponsive" to clients, failing to return telephone messages and inquiries, "further exacerbating the anxiety and uncertainty felt by the clients."

Frustrated "by the pace of the process or angered by Tomasky's unresponsiveness," some clients sought refunds from her. "These demands, although ultimately successful, were often ignored, further fueling the clients' sense of anger, hurt and outrage," Holzberg wrote in his decision.

Holzberg said "full refunds have been paid to all clients who have demanded them" but the onetime loss of the money caused difficulties for her clients.

"As persons of limited means, scraping together the $15,000-$20,000 fee was difficult, the loss of that money for a number of years made it impossible to attempt an adoption through other agencies," Holzberg wrote.

Before she is reinstated as an attorney, Tomasky must provide evidence that she has completed a course in legal ethics and professional responsibility, Holzberg said.