Community Involvement
At Pines Law Group, our team is dedicated to giving back to the community through community involvement, education, outreach and service to the family law, ADR/CDR/Mediation, and special needs communities in particular.
Since 1981, Levitt Quinn has provided family law legal services for poor and low-income families who are unable to obtain representation from other legal services providers or to afford private attorney representation. Each year, Levitt Quinn provides legal information and services to more than 1,500 families and makes hundreds of court appearances on behalf of clients. Their mission statement reads:
“The mission of Levitt Quinn Family Law Center is to provide affordable legal representation in family law matters to low income families of Los Angeles County to ensure stability for children and their families in the face of legal difficulties.”
Because they are committed to the position that no one should stand alone in a courtroom, Levitt Quinn is the only non-profit law firm that actually provides attorney representation inside a family law courtroom for traditional family law matters in the Los Angeles area. They have recently established themselves as the only non-profit law firm in this area that has a full time attorney dedicated exclusively to the representation of homeless veterans in family law matters.
Cari M. Pines is honored to serve on the Levitt Quinn Board of Directors.
Bar Association and Other Activities
Our team is actively involved in providing education and programs for the family law community through our participation in family law organizations in the Los Angeles area.
Most recently, Cari M. Pines finished her term as Chairperson for the Family Law Section of Los Angeles County Bar Association (2018-2019). Cari also has served on the Executive Committee of the Law Practice Management & Technology Section of California Lawyers Association (formerly State Bar of California) and is proud to be a member of the Board of Levitt & Quinn Family Law Center, a nonprofit provider of family law legal services in Los Angeles the sponsor of three full day ESI and Technology events that Cari has co-produced and co-moderated since 2015.
Certified by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization as a Certified Family Law Specialist in 2004, Cari is also a 2018 graduate of the Georgetown Law School eDiscovery Academy . From 2013 through 2018, Cari served as Administrator for the Daily Settlement Officer program at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse and has been instrumental in establishing and administering various settlement programs throughout Los Angeles county.
In her capacity as the Southern Regional Director for Association for Certified Family Law Specialists, Cari co-produced, co-moderated and served as co-presenter for the 2018-2019 Trial Tech Series in both Los Angeles and Orange County providing family law specific trial technique training that Cari originated and produced over nine monthly modules for the San Fernando Valley Bar Association in 2013-2014.
Cari’s private practice is dedicated to the practice of family law and, in addition to her focus on electronic evidence, she specializes is representing parents and children in family law matters impacted by a child’s special needs and regularly consults, lectures and authors articles on this subject.
In response to the 2015-193 State Bar Ethics Opinion of June 30, 2015, Cari joined with Kevin James Mooney, CFLS to introduce and educate family law attorneys, experts and judicial officers about electronically stored information (“ESI”) and use of technology in litigation. Cari’s efforts in the rapidly expanding area began by co-authoring the first of several articles about ESI for LACBA’s E-News in September of 2015 and, on December 5, 2015, Cari and Kevin co-produced their first full day ESI presentation, “From Consult to Trial: Demystifying the Preservation, Collection and Presentation of ESI in Family Law.” Since 2015, Cari has been involved in presentations and conferences focusing on ESI and more recently the use of technology in family law, has contributed as an author and update author, and has served on advisory committees for such organizations as:
- Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA)
- California Lawyers Association (formerly State Bar of California)
- American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML)
- Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
- San Fernando Valley Bar Association (SFVBA)
- California CEB “California Child Custody Litigation and Practice” State Bar of California
- ACFLS Family Law Specialist
- LACBA Family Law Newsletter and E-News
- San Diego County Bar Association
- Law Practice Management & Technology Section California Lawyers Association
- Women of eDiscovery, Newport Beach, CA
- Cal. Fam. Law Am. Inn of Court
- Levitt Quinn, A Nonprofit Family Law Center
- Association of Certified Family Law Specialists (ACFLS)
During her participation in the Family Law Section for LACBA, Cari has been honored to serve as a leader of the ADR/Mediation Sub-Committee since 2013. In that capacity, Cari has served as the administrator of the LACBA Daily Settlement Officer program at the Los Angeles Superior Court Family Law Departments at the Stanley Mosk and Compton Courthouses — enabling LACBA to resume their role as the “housing agency” for the beloved DSO Program which provides two family law attorneys on a daily basis as well as a forensic accountant every Wednesday to provide volunteer mediation services for the family law courtrooms.
Cari regularly presents at family law conferences, colloquia and symposia as well as local family law study groups regarding various areas of her family law expertise – often pertaining to electronic evidence, ediscovery, legal technology and impact of special needs on family law issues.