Ellen K. Embury

Calgary Fertility Lawyer

Ellen is a specialist in reproductive technology law, and has been practicing in the area for 17 years. She is widely recognized as western Canada’s leading practitioner in fertility law. Ellen is regularly invited to lecture on Canadian fertility law matters. Since 2014, she has co-chaired Canada’s four national legal conferences on fertility and surrogacy law.

Reproductive Technology Law

Ellen has helped thousands of couples and individuals with all aspects of surrogacy and fertility law. Ellen works with Intended Parents, Surrogates (gestational carriers), traditional surrogates, egg donors, sperm donors, and parties wishing to donate embryos.

Personal Perspective

Seventeen years ago I was practicing employment and general litigation law in Calgary. A personal friend was looking for a lawyer to help her draft a surrogacy agreement. I searched for a lawyer to refer her to, and I quickly discovered that there were no lawyers in Alberta with this expertise.

I realized that I had an opportunity to help people by creating Western Canada based expertise in this area of law.

It is particularly fulfilling to me to help same-sex couples and those struggling with infertility to create families. I frequently hear from surrogates that their children are the best part of their lives. I feel the same way about my own two children – helping others achieve the goal of parenthood is very fulfilling.

I had worked with Rachel many times over my career and I knew that she had a keen interest in human rights issues and the psychology of interpersonal relationships. In 2016, I convinced her to leave her large corporate law firm and join me in practicing surrogacy and fertility law. The rest, as they say, is history.