About Thomas N.
Thomas N. Taneff is a attorney specializing in probate, estate planning, and adoption law in Columbus, Ohio. He has been practicing law for over 30 years, handling more than 10,000 cases, including over 5,000 adoption and surrogacy-related matters. Mr. Taneff earned his Juris Doctor from Capital University Law School and a Bachelor of Science from The Ohio State University. He also completed a post-graduate program at Harvard Law School. In his early career, he served as a judicial law clerk under the Honorable Probate Judge Richard Metcalf and later as a Franklin County Probate Court Magistrate.
These roles provided him with a knowledge of probate and adoption law from multiple perspectives. Mr. Taneff is the principal of Thomas Taneff Co., LPA, located at 250 S. Civic Center Drive, Suite 610, Columbus, Ohio 43215 — The firm offers services in probate, estate administration, estate planning, guardianship, and adoption. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and the Columbus Bar Association. Throughout his career, he has been recognized as an Ohio Super Lawyer from 2011 through 2021, a distinction awarded to the top 5% of attorneys in Ohio. In 2005, he received the Congressional "Angels in Adoption" award for his dedication to improving the lives of children through adoption.
In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Taneff has been involved in various public service roles. He served on former Ohio Governor George Voinovich’s Adoption Task Force and Commission, which rewrote the Ohio adoption code to safeguard adoptions. He also sat on the Franklin County Children’s Services Adoption Committee, responsible for removing age and race as factors restricting Ohio adoptions. Mr. Taneff is regularly featured on local TV stations WBNS-TV, WCMH-TV. WSYX-TV for stories pertaining to probate and adoption issues.
He frequently writes a "Law You Can Use" column for numerous Ohio newspapers and has been used by the Columbus Dispatch as an expert in adoption-related stories. He is also a frequent lecturer at Capital University Law School, the Columbus and Ohio State Bar Associations, and numerous central Ohio hospitals. In 2023, Mr. Taneff was appointed as a member of the State Cosmetology and Barber Board for a term ending October 31, 2028.