PCD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Attorney
- Member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
Jami Fosgate knows that divorce is emotionally and financially difficult for parents and their children because she is divorced and had to endure the legal process herself. Although Jami had a successful career in marketing, following her own divorce she enrolled in Loyola Law School in 2000 with the goal of becoming an attorney who would assist others through the minefield of divorce.
Jami Fosgate started her family law and mediation center to offer couples and families affordable alternatives to traditional divorce litigation - a process which drains the family finances, is stressful for all involved and takes longer and longer due to court budget cuts. Jami completed extensive training for mediation and consensual dispute resolution and she now declines to represent parties in contested cases.
Jami Fosgate focuses her practice on mediation and collaboration to facilitate agreements between people in conflict to enable them to create a solution that is tailored to their unique family situation. Jami also provides legal document preparation services and limited scope representation at a flat fee to help people control the cost of their family law case.
Jami Fosgate offers a free consultation to couples who attend the meeting together. Evening appointments and weekend mediation sessions are available at no extra charge.
Jami Fosgate is a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP), the Los Angeles Collaborative Family Law Association (LACFLA) and the Southern California Mediation Association (SCMA) along with the American Bar Association, Los Angeles County Bar Association, Beverly Hills Bar Association, San Fernando Valley Bar Association and Pasadena Bar Association. Jami also volunteers as a mediator and settlement officer for Los Angeles Superior Court.
Job Titles:
- Attorney
- Member of the International Academy of Collaborative
Lisa has been practicing family law for over twenty-nine years and she is a Certified Family Law Specialist. Her practice includes consultation, mediation, litigation and collaborative law, and she has been a Super Lawyer since 2009. Before starting her own practice in 1999, she was an associate at Holmes & Holmes in Glendale for twelve years. Lisa has a Martindale-Hubbell, rating of AV® Preeminent.
Although Lisa has been a family law litigator for decades, she recognized long ago that litigation is not an effective way to resolve the issues faced by separating or divorcing parents and couples. Alternative Dispute Resolution models are a better fit, and so she strongly advocates for mediation and collaborative practice whenever possible.
EDUCATION
Lisa graduated from the University of Southern California and from Southwestern University School of Law. She also spent time in Europe studying comparative law. A native of California, she lives in Monrovia, is the proud parent of two adult children, and enjoys cooking, practicing her ukulele, and walking her dog Baxter.
Lisa is a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP), the Los Angeles Collaborative Family Law Association (LACFLA), the Southern California Mediation Association (SCMA), the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Pasadena Bar Association, Association of Certified Family Law Specialists, and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. She is the chairman of the Pasadena Bar Association Family Law Section. She is also the coordinator of the Pasadena Superior Court Family Law Mediation Panel, and she volunteers as one of its attorneys. She has been a presenter at the Los Angeles County Bar Association Minor's Counsel Training and she has spoken on the issue of parental alienation, also testifying on that topic in both the U.S. and Canada.
Job Titles:
- Divorce Coach & Child Specialist
Ria Severance is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She also serves as a Collaborative Divorce Coach, Child Specialist and Co-Mediator, and Executive Development Consultant. Ria brings a deep, personal commitment and honed clinical skill to her efforts to respectfully bridge the disparate concerns of couples, divorcing partners, co-parents and their children. In private practice since 1987, Ms. Severance uses research-based strategies in a warm and nonjudgmental way to redirect interactions and dial down intense emotions, in a process that helps couples enhance their skills and reach an honorable close to their marriage/partnership.
Prior to couples therapy, Ria also offers 2-8, 2-hour sessions of Decision Counseling to help clients gain clarity and confidence about their decision to either: a) Preserve things as they are, b) Stay together and pursue intensive Couples Therapy for a minimum of 6 months, or c) Separate/Divorce, and explore divorce options most likely to sustain and honor relationships, if the family restructures. Whether they stay together or part ways, couples completing Decision Counseling are more able to either commit fully to Couples Therapy, or, if they separate, to be more respectful throughout the divorce process, because they are more resolved and clearer about their own part in the ending of the relationship.
Drawing from her experience working with hundreds of children and parents, Ms. Severance empowers separating or divorced parents to: develop a Co-Parenting plan, form an alliance and skill-set that puts the best interests of children first while addressing the needs of all family members, and keep their families out of court. Parents learn to recognize how even subtle pressure to align against or blame the other parent damages a child's relational skills in the long run. When children are alienated by a favored parent against the other, Ria offers Reunification Therapy. In addition, Ria provides In-Home Parent Coaching for parents needing to learn the skills to handle their children's severe behavioral challenges. In divorce-related Individual Therapy, Ria walks a divorcing partner through the challenges of divorce, the restructuring of the family and the creation of a new future, while teaching clients to manage their anxiety and depression.
Regardless of her clinical focus, Ria is a validating context for growth. She empowers clients to build on their strengths and creativity, and facilitates leaving them inspired by who they are, as well as effective in their relationships and in the world. Clients learn to generate and live into their vision of a life truly worth living, regardless of their circumstances.
A bilingual/bicultural Latina, Ms. Severance has 30 years of clinical experience developing empowering relationships with people of diverse cultures, classes, interests and needs. She has an exceptional ability to perceive, articulate and reflect multiple levels of a person's experience and to communicate that in ways that enhance self-understanding, compassion, self-acceptance, inclusion and the motivation to build relationship skills. Warm and non-judgmental, Ria's style is genuine and direct. Ms. Severance is an out-of-the-box, creative thinker - quick to envision win-win collaborations and solutions to relational challenges.
She is a dynamic and engaging speaker and offers mo nthly free trainings in Pasadena, for clinicians and the public, regarding the pros and cons of Divorce Options, including those more likely to preserve respect and assets. Her fresh approach ignites and invigorates as it empowers. For the past two years, Ria has also offered professional trainings at annual conferences for the state's Collaborative Practice California (CPCal), and the International Association of Collaborative Professionals (IACP). Ms. Severance is active as: Marketing Chair for Pasadena Collaborative Divorce, a Board Member for Los Angeles Collaborative Family Law Association (LACFLA), a Founding Member and Marketing and Training Committee Member for Civil Collaborative Professionals (CCP provides a collaborative practice approach to resolving Probate, Trusts and Estates disputes), and also volunteers as a Co-Mediator and Divorce Coach at Loyola Law School.
Sterling E. Myers has been a family law attorney in Arcadia, California for 33 years with an all encompassing practice working with persons experiencing issues of divorce, separation, custody, visitation, child support, spousal support, complex property issues, and pre/post nuptial agreements. Mr. Myers is a Certified Family Law Specialist in California since 1980. He served as President of the statewide Association of Certified Family Law Specialists and is a continuing member of the Board for 14 years.