My elder brother has urged me to write a post about Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor who died last week as he admired her greatly. But what can be said that hasn’t already been written?

I recalled that she had an adopted daughter Maria and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to highlight the selfless work of Francesca Polini, my client who is campaigning for a review of UK adoption laws, particularly international adoption.

The actress and her fourth husband Eddie Fisher started to adopt a German orphan, Maria, then 3, before divorcing in 1964, and fifth husband Richard Burton eventually adopted her. Maria Burton Carson, now 49, designed clothes and is a philanthropist living in Idaho. She has three other children too.

I feel that Elizabeth Taylor would really have warmed to Francesca, who with husband Rick adopted two children from Mexico, and was last week featured in The Times magazine. You can read her inspirational interview here, and how adoption has transformed their lives:

“Gaia and Luca have transformed our lives. Every day I look at them and wonder where they might have ended up – on the streets begging, abusing drugs, starving to death? Adoption is even more amazing than giving birth because it’s like discovering your soul mate; it feels as though it was always meant to be. We didn’t find them; they found us.”