In my professional experience as a mediator and practitioner of conflict resolution, my vision is to reduce trauma, aggression, and fear to increase well-being and peace to couples wishing to stay married, to those deciding to separate/divorce with grace and integrity and to parents facing challenging parenting/custody issues.
I have been an attorney for over 40 years, licensed to practice law in California and New York. I am a Family Law Specialist certified by the State Bar of California and have been a mediator and collaborative attorney since 1995. I had a successful family law litigation practice until I made the decision to quit litigation entirely in 2019, the year my mother passed away. That experience caused me to pause and really look at how the win-lose mentality of litigation caused more damage than good to families in crisis.
I 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 my work today as a mediator and relationship coach. Starting a masters program in Social Work at Columbia University in New York led me to realize I was passionate about helping bring about change in people’s lives through the law.
I received my Juris Doctor degree from The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University in New York in 1977. I 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 to work 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, I trained with Ken Clock in Mediation, Collaborative Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Center for Dispute Resolution in Santa Monica, CA in 1990. In 1995, I completed training in collaborative divorce with Pauline Tesler, J.D.. In 1999, I 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, I 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.
With an undergraduate background in psychology and realizing how much of family law is impacted by understanding why people do what they do, I undertook and completed a three year masters level training in psychology from the Center for Intentional Living focusing on childhood development and trauma in 2007.
In 2009, I 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 expertise developed from litigating numerous and varied family law cases.
Wanting to incorporate a more holistic approach to working with couples contemplating/going through divorce or wanting to save their marriages, in 2021, I completed a coach training program with Marianne Williamson, New York Times best-selling author, speaker and spiritual teacher, 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. As a certified relationship coach, I incorporate these principles in my mediation practice.
I serve as a settlement judge pro tem in Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties in California and as committed to helping couples resolve disputes respectfully and mindfully even in the court system.
I am passionate about the fair and compassionate treatment of all animals and served on the Board of Directors of Animal Legal Defense Fund. I have volunteered at primate rescue sites in Africa fascinated by the family relationships and bonds exhibited by non-human primates, so similarly human. I am an avid wildlife photographer and exhibit and sell my photographs to promote wildlife conservation education.
