Practice areas
L.A. Family Law Center focuses on marital agreements and related family-law matters. The firm also continues to represent clients in selected surrogacy, assisted-reproduction, estate-planning, and escrow matters.
Prenuptial agreements
A prenuptial agreement is a contract signed before marriage that defines the parties' financial and property rights.
California law already establishes rules governing property, income, debts, reimbursement, support, and inheritance rights between spouses. A prenuptial agreement allows the parties to replace or modify many of those default rules.
The firm drafts prenuptial agreements addressing matters such as:
- Property owned before marriage
- Income and property acquired during marriage
- Business interests and business appreciation
- Real estate and mortgage payments
- Separate-property contributions
- Joint purchases and jointly titled property
- Bank, brokerage, and retirement accounts
- Stock options and restricted stock units
- Debts and personal guarantees
- Gifts and inheritances
- Spousal support
- Life insurance and estate rights
- Financial recordkeeping and tracing
- Confidentiality
- Dispute-resolution procedures
- Property located in other states or countries
- Assisted reproduction and fertility planning
Each agreement is prepared based on the client's circumstances. The firm does not treat a prenuptial agreement as a one-size-fits-all form.
Visit the dedicated prenuptial agreement pageIndependent review of prenuptial agreements
Each party should have separate legal advice concerning a proposed prenuptial agreement.
L.A. Family Law Center represents clients who have received an agreement prepared by their fiancé or the fiancé's attorney. The firm reviews the proposed agreement, explains its legal and financial effect, identifies provisions requiring revision, and communicates with the other attorney concerning requested changes.
Independent review may include:
- Reviewing the proposed agreement and attachments
- Evaluating financial disclosures
- Identifying omitted assets or unclear descriptions
- Comparing the proposed terms with California's default rules
- Analyzing property and support waivers
- Reviewing business and real-estate provisions
- Preparing written revisions or a counterproposal
- Negotiating directly with the drafting attorney
- Advising the client before execution
Receiving an agreement shortly before a wedding may create legal and practical problems. A client who receives a proposed agreement should obtain independent legal advice promptly.
Prenuptial agreement negotiation
The first draft of an agreement is a proposal. It does not have to be accepted without changes.
The firm negotiates prenuptial agreements with opposing counsel concerning property rights, support, business interests, reimbursement, financial disclosure, and other disputed provisions.
Negotiation requires more than changing isolated words. A revision to one section may affect several other provisions. The firm reviews the agreement as a whole and considers how its terms operate together.
The objective is to obtain an agreement that protects the client's material interests while remaining understandable and workable.
Postnuptial agreements
A postnuptial agreement is entered into after marriage.
Spouses may consider a postnuptial agreement when they want to:
- Confirm the character of existing property
- Change how future income or acquisitions will be treated
- Address ownership of a business
- Resolve questions concerning real estate
- Document separate-property contributions
- Change an earlier prenuptial agreement
- Define financial rights following reconciliation
- Establish financial terms after a major change in circumstances
Postnuptial agreements require careful review because spouses owe fiduciary duties to one another and agreements made during marriage may receive close scrutiny.
The firm prepares and reviews postnuptial agreements based on the parties' current property, disclosures, and objectives.
Visit the postnuptial agreement pageDivorce and family law
The firm accepts selected matters involving:
- Divorce
- Legal separation
- Marital settlement agreements
- Property characterization and division
- Business and real-property disputes
- Spousal support
- Child custody and visitation
- Child support
- Enforcement of family-law orders and agreements
The firm evaluates each matter individually based on its subject, scope, and procedural posture.
Surrogacy and assisted-reproduction law
L.A. Family Law Center has represented intended parents and other participants in hundreds of assisted-reproduction matters.
Services may include:
- Drafting and negotiating gestational-surrogacy agreements
- Independent review of gestational-surrogacy agreements
- Egg-donation agreements
- Sperm-donation agreements
- Embryo-donation agreements
- Parentage proceedings
- Pre-birth and post-birth parentage orders
- Advice concerning compensation, expenses, insurance, escrow, medical decisions, and parental rights
- Coordination with agencies, fertility clinics, escrow providers, and counsel for other participants
Assisted reproduction involves contractual, medical, financial, and parentage issues. Each participant should be represented by independent counsel.
Visit the dedicated surrogacy pageEstate planning
L.A. Family Law Center provides selected estate-planning services for individuals and families whose planning may need to coordinate with marital agreements, family-law arrangements, or assisted reproduction.
Services may include preparation or review of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, health-care directives, and related documents, depending on the client's needs and the scope of the engagement.
Estate planning should be coordinated with existing prenuptial or postnuptial agreements, beneficiary designations, real-property title, business interests, and intended-parent arrangements. The firm advises clients to identify potential conflicts among these documents before execution.
Visit the estate planning pageEscrow account management
The firm provides escrow-account management for selected assisted-reproduction matters when agreed in writing.
Escrow terms may address initial funding, minimum balances, replenishment requirements, approved disbursements, expense documentation, compensation schedules, holdbacks, account statements, and return of unused funds.
Escrow services are provided only under a separate written engagement or escrow agreement. The firm does not release funds outside the governing agreement and documented payment instructions.
Visit the escrow pageSchedule a consultation.
Speak with an attorney about drafting, reviewing, or negotiating a marital agreement — or another service offered by the firm.
Contact the Firm