Riviera Law and Mediation - Sebastopol, CA

Daniel Riviera is a Harvard and Georgetown-educated lawyer and mediator, practicing exclusively in the area of family law. He works with parties seeking a way through conflict to a fully informed, fair resolution. Divorce is a major life transition, and for many a difficult process, with practical, emotional, and financial challenges. Mr. Riviera has the temperament, expertise, and judgment to guide parties, whether as a lawyer or mediator, to a positive result from which they can begin the next chapter of their lives.

Mr. Riviera works within the full range of family law issues, from primarily financial cases to cases involving high interpersonal conflict, including domestic violence. His practice includes divorce, legal separation, and dissolution of domestic partnership; and the negotiation of the many issues arising in such major life transitions, including the division of assets and the allocation of debt; child custody and support; spousal support; and parenting arrangements. He also negotiates and drafts premarital and postnuptial agreements, and the post-judgment modification of marital settlement agreements.

Divorcing parties, and parties seeking to resolve other conflicts in family law, can choose the manner or "process" in which they do so. Family law is innovative in its employment of a variety of dispute-resolution processes. These processes are broadly categorized as "consensual" or "non-consensual."

Consensual processes, including "settlement-minded" traditional representation, where each party has an attorney and through, or with the assistance of, their attorneys negotiate and successfully reach an agreement; mediation and its variations; and other processes, including interdisciplinary formats – like "collaborative practice" and "integrative mediation" – involving mental health, financial, and other professionals working with the parties' attorneys, are called "consensual" because the parties reach an agreement through the process on their own. Non-consensual processes, including litigation before the court or a private judge, are called "non-consensual" because a third party, the judge, is making decisions for, and imposing a judgment upon, the parties because they are unable to reach agreement on their own.

Although he works in all consensual and non-consensual processes, Mr. Riviera most frequently serves as a settlement-minded attorney representing a single party or as a mediator working neutrally with both parties, either for the entire dissolution process or for the resolution of particular issues. When required as an attorney, Mr. Riviera is a highly effective advocate in his writing and appearances in court in connection with litigated issues.

Note that, as used herein, "settlement-minded" does not mean weak or prematurely or excessively compromising; rather, it means working constructively, efficiently, and pragmatically toward a fully informed, fair resolution.

In addition to representing individual parties as an attorney or working with both parties as a mediator, Mr. Riviera serves as a consulting attorney to individual parties engaged in mediation with another mediator.

Mr. Riviera is well-suited to both roles of attorney and mediator. He is empathetic, patient, and supportive. He is calm and steady, and a careful listener. He has decades of experience zealously and successfully representing individuals at a high level, many of whom must maintain ongoing relationships with the other party (as when divorcing parents must continue to raise children together). Mr. Riviera has the maturity, perspective, and judgment to help clients evaluate choices clearly and make constructive decisions. His work as a mediator in dozens of settlement conferences informs both his counsel as a lawyer and his guidance as a mediator in that he knows how many other cases with like issues have been resolved.

As both an attorney and mediator, Mr. Riviera has worked extensively with, and welcomes the involvement of, mental health, financial, and other professionals, as needed or desired by the parties.

Mr. Riviera's practice is roughly divided 65% as settlement-minded attorney representing a single party; 25% as mediator; and 10% as consulting attorney or attorney representing a single party within an interdisciplinary format.