Firm Profile
In 1996, I decided to open up my own solo practice, and have enjoyed having an office of my own. I have focused on family law, with a small, select group of art law clients.
My principal goal is to offer very personalized legal services to clients, specifically tailored to the individual presentation of each case. Family law is about relationships and preserving a sense of protection, proportion, fairness, and attention to the needs of children when adult relationships disintegrate. I focus on child custody, support, marital, premarital, and settlement contracts, property division, domestic violence, and mediation in the context of dissolution of marriage, paternity actions, and partnerships. My art law practice is similarly tailored to the individuals involved and includes contracts, copyright, moral rights, licensing agreements, and most issues related to visual arts law in terms of the individual artist.
I believe that my unique strength is my interest in understanding people. In law school, I studied Law and Psychiatry with three psychiatrists and a law professor and I have taken continuing education courses required for custody evaluators as well as a comprehensive domestic violence course for psychologists working in family law. As much as possible, I try to keep up with the literature and new developments in psychology in the context of custody and domestic violence. Understanding the viewpoint of the psychologist in a custody evaluation is challenging and extremely important to the practice of family law. I study to understand, and to be able to anticipate behavior in my clients and other parties to family law cases. Most importantly, this study keeps my thinking flexible and helps me to come up with ideas -- ideas for settlement, ideas for strategy, whatever is necessary to best represent my client.
My lifelong interest in nonviolence as a viable means of conflict resolution has also contributed to my family law practice. Nonviolence teaches us to look for alternatives to conflict; it teaches us to think issues through from multiple perspectives, again, generating ideas. The solutions to problems cannot all be the same for everyone. This is why I believe that the ability to creatively come up with ideas is one of the most important qualities for practicing family law. Naturally, ideas are the basis of conflict resolution through mediation. I believe in a hands-on approach where the parties and mediator brainstorm. I know I am succeeding when the parties get excited about the ideas and start talking about solving the remainder of their issues and problems between themselves. That is a most successful feeling of resolution; when the attorney drops into the background and becomes the educated scrivener.
Association/Professional Organization Memberships:
California State Bar, American Bar Association, San Mateo County Bar Association, Santa Clara County Bar Association (member of Family Law Sections for all four associations; member of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section for the ABA)
Besides the Family Law Section memberships in San Mateo County and Santa Clara County, I also belong to California Lawyers for the Arts and the Graphic Artists Guild.
Achievements
Bar Admissions
CA, Dec 1992
Bar Number: 161300
Other Court Admissions
Supreme Court of California, Federal District Court, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Association Memberships
California State Bar, American Bar Association, San Mateo County Bar Association, Santa Clara County Bar Association (member of Family Law Sections for all four associations; member of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section for the ABA)
Continuing Education
Ongoing continuing education in all areas of family law, including child custody & child development, psychology, ethics, ADR, pro tem training, complex property litigation, discovery, county-specific rules, etc. Most recently, I have completed a 40 hour Mediation Training with the Northern California Mediation Center.
Education
School: Georgetown University Law Center
Degree: J.D.
City: Washington, D.C.
State: DC
Year: 1992
Honors: American Jurisprudence Award, Family Law, 1991; Dean's List 1990 - 1992; Best Paper, Psychiatry and the Law, 1992; Best Paper, Gender and the Law, 1991
Focus and Accomplishments: Law clerk for Garfinkle and Associates, Washington, D.C., (a firm devoted to the combination of family law and art law); Law Review: Journal of Law and Technology, 1990-1991; Legal Intern for Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, 1990 (model "Artist-Gallery Contract;" article for Cultural Alliance), I also studied law, policy and nonviolence with Colman McCarthy
School: San Jose State University
Degree: Master of Fine Arts
City: San Jose
State: CA
Year: 1981
Focus: Teaching Assistant for Professor Tony May; 1979 Exhibit at WORKS Gallery, San Jose, California; M.F.A. Exhibition and Thesis, 1980.
Accomplishments: Exhibiting, teaching, writing. I wrote press releases and reviews for WORKS Gallery, San Jose, during its early years. I also began teaching a weekly art class in the North County Jail, Palo Alto, California, and continued this volunteer work for eight years.
School: Stanford University
Degree: A.B.
City: Stanford
State: CA
Year: 1972
Honors: Charles Warren Kendrick Memorial Honors Scholarship; Stanford in Britain X
Focus and Accomplishments: Art major with interests in Art History, Creative Writing, Comparative Literature, Comparative Religion, and on-campus politics, including the study of the role of nonviolence in conflict resolution.
Clients
My preference is to handle family law matters for clients who place the welfare of their children first, who have enough self knowledge to be able to help me plan their cases efficiently in order to achieve their primary goals, and who participate actively by good faith efforts at honest communication at every stage of the legal proceedings.
Case Wins
My favorite cases over the years have been the cases where at the outset, when I am retained, my client has been put at a severe disadvantage and perhaps deprived of visitation for one reason or another, and by the end of the case, with my help, she/he has achieved an appropriate timeshare, a restored and balanced relationship with her/his kids, an equal balance of power with the other spouse, a fair division of property, and confidence in better parenting skills and/or relationship skills. These are my "big cases," although no one outside of my office will ever know about them.