Wendy's Story

Wendy was raised in Queens, New York until she moved to Jericho, Long Island with her family at the age of eight. She lived there until she left for college after graduating from Jericho High School.  Wendy received  a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting with a minor in psychology from the University of Buffalo, The State University of New York in 1972. Being a creative artist very much influences Wendy’s work today as a mediator and relationship coach.

 

Starting a masters program in Social Work at Columbia University in New York led Wendy to realize she was passionate about helping bring about change in people’s lives through the law. Wendy pursued a career as a lawyer.

 

Wendy received a Juris Doctor degree from The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in New York in 1977. Wendy worked as a corporate attorney at a highly respected law firm in Manhattan, New York after graduating from law school before moving to California the following year. She took and passed the New York Bar in 1977 and a year later, passed the California Bar and was licensed to practice law in California in 1978. Wendy worked as an entertainment attorney at a prestigious entertainment law firm before becoming a Hollywood studio executive at both Columbia Pictures and Disney studios negotiating complex financial agreements in the motion picture industry.

 

While living in Southern California, Wendy received training in Mediation, Collaborative Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from Ken Cloke at the Center for Dispute Resolution in Santa Monica, CA in 1990.  In 1995, Wendy completed training in collaborative divorce with Pauline Tesler, J.D..  In 1999, Wendy completed an advanced Divorce Mediation and Conflict Resolution training with Joan B. Kelley, Ph. D. at the Northern California Mediation Center in Corte Madera, California.

 

In 2006, Wendy co-authored a book entitled “California Domestic Partnerships”, which received the 2006 award for Professional Excellence from the Association for Continuing Legal Education of the State Bar of California.

 

Tracing back to her background in psychology as an undergraduate student and realizing how much of her work in family law is impacted by understanding why people do what they do, in 2007, Wendy completed a three year masters level training in psychology from the Center for Intentional Living focusing on childhood development and trauma.

 

In 2009, Wendy became a Family Law Specialist, Certified by the State Bar of California. In order to receive this status, Wendy underwent additional training, law examinations  and verification that she had the experience of litigating numerous and varied family law cases. 

 

Wendy personally experienced the trauma of divorce in her own marriage and became a single working mother. Through this personal experience, Wendy can empathize, at a visceral level, with those facing the uncertainty of divorce.

 

Wanting to incorporate a more holistic approach to working with women contemplating/going through divorce, Wendy began a coach training program with Marianne Williamson, New York Times best-selling author, speaker and spiritual teacher. Her coach training was based upon the tenets of “A Course in Miracles” (ACIM) a psychological and spiritual thought system based upon principles of love and forgiveness in the place of judgment and blame.  One of the major tenets of ACIM is  you can have a grievance or you can have a miracle, you cannot have both.  Wendy completed this mastery level training in 2021 and is certified as a “miracle-minded” coach. She incorporates these principles in her work today as a mediator and relationship coach. 

 

Wendy has served as a settlement judge pro tem in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties in California and is committed to helping couples resolve disputes respectfully and mindfully.

 

As well as her work with humans, Wendy is passionate about the fair and compassionate treatment of all animals and has served on the Board of Directors of Animal Legal Defense Fund.  Wendy volunteers her time as a caregiver at primate rescue sites in Africa fascinated by the family relationships and bonds exhibited by non-human primates, so similarly human.  Wendy is an avid wildlife photographer and exhibits her work to promote conservation of wildlife.