Cari has been a Certified Family Law Specialist since 2004. She was proud to serve as the Chair of the Family Law Sections of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the San Fernando Valley Bar Association and to serve as President of the Board of LevittQuinn Family Law Center, a nonprofit provider of family law legal services in Los Angeles.
Although an experienced litigator, Cari fully appreciates the value of mediation and Consensual Dispute Resolution. She has not only served as a volunteer settlement officer but has been instrumental in founding and administering various successful settlement programs for LASC, LACBA and LASC. Cari’s first ADR projects were organizing and administering the LACBA/SFVBA Third Wednesday Settlement Project enabling the Court to refer cases for settlement conferences in attorneys’ offices while the Courts were dark. Later, commencing in 2013, Cari has served as Administrator for the Daily Settlement Officer program at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse and was instrumental in establishing the DSO Program in the Compton Courthouse. During the court closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cari created LACBA’s Virtual Settlement Officer program and when the courts reopened, took the DSO Program to a virual platform to enable litigants to participate in settlement conferences remotely.
Educating Family Law professionals has been another of Cari’s passions. During the last of her three terms as Chairperson for the San Fernando Valley Bar Association’s Family Law Section, Cari led the team that created and produced the Family Law Advocacy Training (“FLAT”) Trial Tech Program, the first year-long interactive advocacy training workshops for family law professionals in southern California. During 2018-2019, Cari and her team reimagined the Trial Tech program for ACFLS and produced eight modules in Los Angeles and Orange County.
Perhaps the biggest impact Cari has made in the Family Law community has been her role in education and innovation related to electronic evidence and legal technology. 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” and enhanced her credentials by graduating from Georgetown Law School eDiscovery Academy in 2018. Since 2015, Cari has been involved in dozens of presentations and conferences and authored numerous articles focusing on ESI and more recently the use of technology in family law, has contributed as an author and update author. Cari has presented educational programs for such organizations as:
- Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA)
- 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)
- 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
- California Family Law Report (CFLR)
- Our Family Wizard
- Attorney’s Briefcase
Cari’s private practice is dedicated to the practice of family law but her area of specialization is family law matters impacted by a child’s special needs. Her personal and professional experience representing parents of children with special needs and the minors themselves have brought Cari to dedicate significant time and attention to educating family law professionals around the US by lecturing regularly on this subject, serving as settlement officer in these matters, and providing consultation services for family law attorneys regarding the impact of the child’s needs, resources available to these families, and the impact of a child’s special needs on all aspects of family law matters.