The law firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, P.C., announced Karolina Dehnhard, a partner specializing in family law, has been named by Boy Scouts of America as ‘Woman of the Year’ for her work on behalf of children in Poland and the Ukraine.

Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, more than 4,000 orphans have been displaced from orphanages in Ukraine to Poland. While currently there is a moratorium on the adoption of Ukrainian children on Polish soil, Dehnhard is working with politicians and diplomats to address this issue.

“Given that adoptions of Ukrainian children were allowed before the war, it is all the more important during this conflict that relief efforts are provided to the thousands of children who currently reside in Poland,” Dehnhard explained. “This is especially true since Poland already has a very crowded orphanage system. The goal is to improve the quality of life for these children, while the lawyers, politicians and diplomats address their future.”

In an effort to provide relief while larger legal issues of the potential adoptions are addressed, Dehnhard is helping to organize humanitarian efforts for the orphans. In her recent appointment to the Board of Directors of the H.E.L.P. Foundation based in Warsaw, Poland, she has focused on fundraising to provide educational and other related necessities for those children that do not speak Polish. Dehnhard also is partnering with BrandMed, a private hospital group in Poland, to secure medical treatment for these children.

A native of Poland, Dehnhard is highly experienced in handling complex international family law matters for clients who live and work both in New Jersey and Eastern Europe, including international adoptions, custody and divorce.

The overall goal for Dehnhard is to continue to fulfill her mission of making the lives of children better by providing them with a family and home, rather than spending their lives in orphanages. “There are hundreds of families in New Jersey who want nothing more than to adopt children. There are thousands of children in Poland that need loving families. To make that dream happen is what it’s all about,” Dehnhard concluded.