Stephen Page
Accredited Family Law Specialist
Award-Winning Fertility Lawyer
Author, Speaker, Podcaster
I am an award winning, passionate family and fertility lawyer, devoted to looking after my clients, and I seek that the law reflect societal trends.
I am a principal of Page Provan, family land fertility lawyers, in Brisbane, and I lecture in Ethics and the Law in Reproductive Medicine in the Masters of Reproductive Medicine course at the University of New South Wales. I have also been a guest lecturer at Monash University, Hong Kong University, University of the Western Cape and Arizona State University.
I have been admitted as a solicitor for over 35 years and have been an accredited family law specialist for over 25 years. My areas of specialty have been acting in cases involving international disputes, domestic violence, acting for LGBTIQ+ clients, and acting in fertility law matters.
I am a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers, a worldwide association of practicing lawyers who are recognised by their peers as the most experienced and skilled family law specialists in their respective countries. I serve on several committees of the Academy. Membership of the Academy is by invitation only. Lawyers must satisfy established criteria in order to obtain the approval of the Board of Admissions. The process is a rigorous one, designed to ensure that the high level of expertise within IAFL is maintained.
I was also the first Fellow outside the US or Canada to be invited to join the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys. I serve as a member of a committee of the Academy. The Academy is comprised of over 500 highly vetted attorneys dedicated to the competent and ethical practice of adoption and assisted reproduction law.
Although I have always been based in Brisbane, in 2012 I was appointed as an international representative of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Committee of the American Bar Association, and I continue in that role.
I am an internationally renowned pioneer in fertility law, including in surrogacy matters. I have been accepted as an expert witness in cases in Australia and the UK. I am (with my husband) a dad through surrogacy and I have also suffered infertility. Since 1988, I have advised in over 1780 surrogacy journeys for clients from every part of Australia- from the Outback to WA’s Wheatbelt, the Pilbara to Tasmania, Adelaide Hills to Cairns, and from all Australia’s major cities, and at last count 32 countries overseas. No other lawyer in Australia has my level of expertise when it comes to surrogacy. I have appeared in courts in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria on the making of surrogacy parentage orders.
I have received a number of awards, including: Activist of the Year in the Queens Ball Awards (2015), Rainbow Keys Award from the LGBTI Legal Service (2015), Post-graduate Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of New South Wales (2019) and I was the recipient of the inaugural Pride in Law Award (2019).
I am a director of consumer IVF advocacy group, Access Australia’s Infertility Network Ltd and am also a director of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand Limited.
I have written about family and fertility law extensively and presented at conferences around the world, including for the International Bar Association, American Bar Association, International Academy of Family Lawyers, International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Canadian Fertility and Andrology Society, LawAsia and Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, among others.
I have also presented and written extensively within Australia, including for Family Law Section, Law Council of Australia, Queensland Law Society, Family Law Practitioners Association of Queensland, Fertility Society of Australia, Law Society of South Australia, Hunter Valley Family Law Practitioners Association, Family law Practitioners Association of Western Australia, Legalwise and television Education Network.
I have a fundamental belief that everyone is entitled to be treated under the law- and that the law is fair. For over 20 years I have made submissions to Government or Parliament to seek that the law be fairer- for children, in cases of domestic violence, for LGBTIQ+ people, and to do with surrogacy and assisted reproductive treatment, among others. My efforts have helped caused changes in the law, or how the law is applied, by the Commonwealth, and in Queensland, Northern Territory, Victoria and South Australia.
I have been an independent children’s lawyer for 15 years. My focus in any case is to ensure I do no harm towards children, and seek that the best interests of children (whether born or to be born) are considered and promoted.
Speaking Appearances
