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Melanie is all-about family and firmly advocates for her client and his/her family whether it is the traditional family, the single parent family, the blended family, the divorcing parent family, the family with the deployed parent, the parent seeking to legitimate, etc.
Melanie's clients are spread across the U.S.A. and the world, including Japan, Korea and Iraq. She invokes a confidence and sureness in her client so that her clients will find and/or maintain his/her parent voice and pursue the best interests for their children.
Not all divorce and/or custody issues are contested so Melanie is trained for such Collaborative Law family matters.
Family Law is a second career for Melanie. She worked in the corporate world and has a Bachelor's Degree, cum laude, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. Melanie also graduated from Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, DE and moved to Georgia in 1992 in order to be near her extended family. Melanie's sister, brother-in-law, nephews, nieces and grandnieces all reside within metropolitan Atlanta.
Melanie's business background is still being utilized when she crunches the numbers for child support worksheets, monthly budgets, the division of marital property, the determination of premarital property, marital investments and retirements, family businesses, alimony awards, prenuptial agreements, and so on.
In her spare time, Melanie has researched her paternal family tree all the way back to the 1500's. In fact, Melanie's first American ancestors arrived at the port of Philadelphia in the early 1700's. Melanie has also begun the research on her maternal family tree and they also arrived at the port of Philadelphia in the early 1700's.
Melanie believes that our children are entitled to both of their parents and she encourages her clients to put their children first and foremost while creating a parenting plan that will continue to allow each child to thrive and be loved while with each parent. Melanie believes that "children of divorce have two homes, Mom's Home and Dad's Home and let's start our building from here."
Georgia, 1992
U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia, 1993
State Bar of Georgia
Cobb County Bar Association
Collaborative Law Institute of Georgia
International Academy of Collaborative Law Professionals
State Bar of Georgia, Family Law Section
Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, Delaware, 1992 J.D.
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1988
Honors: cum laude