Smoother Path to Divorce Through Joint Petitions Starting January 2026
California divorce law changes in 2026! California, the first state to legalize ‘no fault’ divorce in 1969, has taken another significant step toward making divorce in California more cooperative and less adversarial. As of January 2026, a new law, Senate Bill 1427, allows for a ‘joint petition for dissolution of marriage’. Amy Laughlin, Founder, Partner, […]
Keeping Your Business Safe in an Ultra High-Asset Divorce
A conversation with an Ultra High-Asset Divorce Attorney The following is a not unusual history for a typical Laughlin Legal client… When he was 6, he broke apart his mom’s laptop to see how it worked. When he was 9, he built his own laptop. When he was 17, he developed a business concept for […]
How Are Retirement Assets Divided for High Net Worth Divorces (in California)?
A conversation with a high asset divorce attorney. The short answer is: it’s complicated. The long answer is: it’s more complicated in most states than it is in California because California inherited the community property system of asset division from Mexico when the state was annexed in 1848 following the Mexican–American War. The simplicity of […]
Grey Divorce: How To Handle Divorce In Your 50s, 60s and Beyond
Each generation has its own unique interpretation of marriage, family and divorce. The Baby Boomer generation, born 1946 to 1964, postponed getting married, postponed having kids and had fewer of them. Where their parents mostly stayed married until death they did part, Boomers embraced divorce, became divorced in greater numbers, and divorced later in life […]
How to Split Stocks in a Divorce: A California Expert’s Guide
All successful divorce lawyers, in California and every other state, are good at something. They may be good at instilling confidence in their clients. They may be good at listening or mediation or explaining complicated issues. But when you get into the high net worth divorce terrain where people invariably divorce with investments, you want […]
Navigating Property Division in High-Asset Divorces
A Q&A about high-asset divorce asset valuation challenges with Amy Laughlin, UHNW divorce and investment property division lawyer. What don’t most people know about dividing assets in high-net-worth divorce in California? Amy Laughlin, Founder and Partner at Laughlin Legal Divorce & Family Law Group in San Mateo doesn’t even pause to consider the answer to […]
An International Divorce Lawyer on What You Need to Know about International Divorce
Amy Laughlin, Founder and Partner at Laughlin Legal Divorce & Family Law Group, a practice that predominantly serves ultra high net worth clients, has seen her share of international divorces and becomes animated when the subject comes up. “At the risk of sounding alarmist, if people who read this get one thing out of it, […]
Hiring a private judge for divorce in California could save you time and money and preserve your privacy.
Taking a divorce case to court can be exhausting, confusing and stressful. Delays due to courts being overloaded with cases and unpredictable schedule changes can lead couples to feel frustrated and stuck, unable to move forward with their lives despite having already made the choice to leave their marriage behind. Strict procedures, deadlines and paperwork […]
What Legal Challenges Can a Family Lawyer Help You Overcome During a Contentious Divorce?
You’re sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee from a mug you got as a souvenir on a vacation with your spouse. You remember lying on a beach holding hands, reading poems to each other every anniversary on the same bench where you got engaged, simply being happy. You look up at the empty seat […]
What Is a Wife Entitled to in a Divorce in California in 2025?
Navigating any legal situation can be challenging and stressful, but there’s something uniquely grueling about divorce: it’s not just that it hits close to home, often it’s literally the home that’s at stake. The emotional weight of divorce can be exhausting enough. But when you factor in the added weight of trying to understand the […]