We’re Here to Help Make the Difficult Decisions of Divorce… Easier.
Kerry Wallis
This is my calling. I get to walk alongside people while they work through one of their most difficult times. And, I get to give people the best advice I can. I tell people hard news, and help them understand and get used to a new normal. One that they have a lot of control over. I can’t promise that my clients will get everything they want from a divorce. In fact, I can almost always promise that they won’t.
But I can promise that I will walk next to them through the ugly stuff and guide them through the process. That I will work with them to take responsibility for the part they have control over and make peace with the rest. I will help them find calm in the midst of the storm, and I will encourage them to become the people that they want to be.
And as they walk toward the light at the end of the tunnel, they will start seeing that they are getting to a much better place than when they started.
How I ended up here…
My dad was a lawyer. My mom a teacher. But, really she is the tone police and head cheerleader of our family. My mom intuitively knew how to communicate, and I was intrigued by it. So, I double-majored in psychology and communications at UCLA, a path that eventually lead me to apply to law school (after a quick detour to Bangkok Thailand).
I desperately wanted to go to one particularly impressive school. But my then-fiancé was already in grad school in San Diego, and he couldn’t transfer to my dream school. So, I went to perfectly fine school in the same city as my husband while mourning the loss of one of my dreams. I get the sacrifices that we make for our spouses.
I had the good fortune to start my “real” legal career as a civil litigator at a big multi-office law firm (Morrison & Foerster LLP). The firm had over 1,000 attorneys, and only one of them did family law. Periodically that lone partner would need some help on her bigger cases, so she would “borrow” one of us civil litigators to help.
Over time, I became one of her go-to associates. And, after my second child was born and she opened her own law firm, I joined her. After a couple of years, there were a number of other ex-Mofo attorneys doing big cases with high stakes divorce litigation at her firm. They do really good work at my old firm.
But I hated the fight. I hated what it did to people, what it brought out in everyone, including me. There were only two cases in my entire career that I felt really needed to go to trial – both of which involved one or more clients with mental health issues. For all others, I was confident that they would have gotten a better result by settling, and for less money.
So, I started my own practice with an emphasis on mediation, collaborative law, and settlement-minded negotiations. Each day I get to practice the way that I would want to be treated. I get to help people learn how to co-parent, communicate, make hard decisions, and work to become the best they can be through a really hard process.
Sidenote
On a personal note, I am passionate about character, communication, and good coffee. Not always in that order. I love interior design, but after eight years, I still have paper “blinds” on some of my windows. I am constantly reading nonfiction books, and my kids mock me for quoting the “latest research” in all our conversations. I am a tad bit obsessed with yoga and pilates. And, I dream of someday traveling throughout the world for many months at a time, but still mediating from wherever I am—because I love it that much.
Details that some people care more about than others:
- UCLA, BA, double major communications and psychology, summa cum laude
- University of San Diego School of Law, magna cum laude, Editor-in-Chief of the San Diego Law Review, named Order of the Coif
- Law Clerk to the Honorable Robert J. Kelleher, United States District Judge, Central District of California
- Certified by the State Bar of California’s Board of Specialization as a Family Law Specialist
Donna Gin
Is thankful that Kerry usually asks her to write motions, and not about herself. She loves to wordsmith, and has a direct, approachable way about her writing that can simultaneously calm people down and inspire people to act. She is a quick thinker and writer who is able to read between the lines to get to the heart of an issue, without wasting words, space, or time. She prefers to have time to ruminate over an issue for a while, but when time is of the essence, she gets things done like few others.
- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
- Southwestern University School of Law