I understand family trauma. I have first hand experience. When I was 7, my pregnant mother left my father taking me and my siblings with her. We left with the clothes on our backs. When the divorce was final, my mother got nothing, no spousal support and no child support for 5 kids. She was a strong woman. She could live a year on a dime. She got food stamps, gave birth to my little sister, and continued to raise us in a tiny abandoned house she found. My life could not have prepared me better for this work.

Years later, I went to law school and learned how profoundly the legal system had failed my mother. She had no protection from domestic violence and no financial protection either. The divorce laws failed all six of us, and we all had our struggles as a result. So when I decided to become a family lawyer, I was determined to be one of the best divorce lawyers ever because I know better than most what’s at stake. To me, that meant protecting every client in two crucial ways that my mother was vulnerable: by becoming as fluent and sophisticated in finance as the most experienced opposing counsel, and by giving clients my mobile number and taking their calls at all times in case there’s a family emergency. ”