About

The law is an adversarial process by definition, and when it comes to families and personal matters, confrontation does little to truly resolve the situation. I prefer to approach family matters with dispute resolution as a viable alternative to expensive litigation. I also do traditional legal representation and will aggressively pursue resolving the issues using the court system. While I do traditional litigation using the courts, my practice is focused on Mediation and Collaborative Law where the parties and their attorneys agree to resolve all the issues without court intervention.  As a mediator, I serve as a neutral third person to assist parties in privately resolving their issues.  Fully trained and practicing the Collaborative Law approach since 2005, I was instrumental in bringing Collaborative Law to Spokane. I was the primary presentor at a two day training on Collaborative Law. Between graduating from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1980 and opening my law practice in 2002, I obtained my masters in clinical psychology and practiced as a mental health professional serving individuals, couples and families.  My return to the law was based on a passion for assisting people to navigate the sometimes vicious legal system in a more reasonable and compassionate manner. With extensive experience in traditional family law, I am committed to helping families redefine themselves during dissolution in a way that supports the health and wellbeing of all parties, particularly the children. I offer a unique set of skills for providing compasionate assistance in divorce proceedings. I listen carefully to my clients to determine their goals related to the divorce.  Whether the goal is to retain ownership of a house, a fair division of assets or minimizing the impact on children my  common sense approach allows my clients  to reach solutions tailored to their particular circumstances. My primary goal as a lawyer, is to ensure that families in distress are not further damaged by the legal process.   

Practices Areas

Child custody

Divorce and separation

Language

English

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