Mary Ellen Waller - Calabasas, CA

Overview

Mary Ellen Waller is a director, shareholder, and the general counsel of Feinberg & Waller, A Professional Corporation. Although Ms. Waller is not available for individual client retention, her focus is on the management of Feinberg & Waller, a law firm practicing exclusively in divorce and family law with offices located in Calabasas and Beverly Hills, California. Ms. Waller has helped lead the firm to become one of Southern California's premier family law firms, serving clients in all aspects of family law, including highly complex family law litigation. Clients receive increased value and benefit from her role; they are not charged for the expertise that she brings to the family law profession and the firm.

Ms. Waller provides decisive support to Feinberg & Waller in numerous areas including finance, information technology, human resources, media and information services, marketing, public policy advocacy, general services, real property operations, development of strategic consultancies, as well as corporate governance and business policy. She develops business and legal strategy along with detailed analysis, which accompanies strategic planning and implementation.

Ms. Waller ensures that the firm's focus is on the efficiency of service delivery and accountability. She has had a lifelong focus on rules and fairness. The principle of human dignity and that we have an obligation to respect the decisions made by other people concerning their own lives is at the foundation of her practice. Ms. Waller bases her decision-making process on ethics and integrity with a vision that focuses on providing a hospitable, high quality law firm, always with a mindset of improvement of the processes to better serve clients.

Feinberg & Waller's practice area, family law, is one of the most all-encompassing and complex areas of the law since the cases touch upon so many different aspects of the law. Ms. Waller consistently pursues continuing education in the field of family law and researches unique legal issues impacting the firm. She holds a degree in Criminal Justice, which gives her a better understanding of some of the nuanced issues that can arise in family law matters. Ms. Waller has accumulated in-depth perspectives in areas of law and business related to circumstances facing many divorcing spouses. She has extensive experience in understanding the range of differing needs of each client and in developing creative solutions to sensitive and complex challenges during difficult times.

Ms. Waller is the supervising editor of Feinberg & Waller's family law blog. Her insights on family law issues and her advocacy for equal fundamental individual civil rights for minorities have been published in numerous media outlets. Her perspectives have been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, both award-wining publications covering legal affairs in California. Ms. Waller has a sophisticated knowledge of the full spectrum of digital topics from social media and mobile marketing, to online metrics. The digital revolution, synchronization, and communication distribution continue to be areas of interest, exploration, and creative development for Ms. Waller. Her legal and communication backgrounds have translated to the ability to skillfully use communications to advocate on public policy issues.

The firm works towards a mission of continual education dissemination in the family law field, public policy advocacy for streamlining the procedural process governing dissolutions, heightened awareness for the Family Law Bar to always practice with the best interest of the children in mind, and equal civil rights for all regardless of culture, race, sex, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation. Feinberg & Waller's community outreach efforts include the production of a digital referral database of family law resources for low-income families in Los Angeles and Ventura County, and a free online video library of family law topics. The law firm is also recognized for mentorship of law students.

Ms. Waller began her legal career as a law clerk for the Real Estate Finance Bureau of the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York. Throughout her career she has continued to be involved in numerous regulatory agency issues in a broad range of industries and real property transactions. Ms. Waller has also overseen and executed large-scale remodels and construction of several commercial and residential real estate properties including the current offices of Feinberg & Waller, which she designed for the comfort of the firms' discerning clientele.

Ms. Waller evaluates matter progress within the firm and facilitates tactical legal initiatives. She has extensive courtroom experience as a litigation attorney in both New York and California. She has litigated hundreds of matters before courts throughout the Greater Los Angeles area and the five boroughs of New York City. As a trial lawyer she litigated all types of civil actions, battling to protect and advance the interest of her clients through trial or settlement. In addition, she has business experience in venture capital, debtor-creditor asset recovery, asset liquidation, vendor-vendee transactional contracts, and employer-employee issues.

Ms. Waller is an active member of several community organizations including the Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Charities, National Charity League, Inc., Pierce Community College, The Cowboy Lawyers Association, Ahmanson Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Pepperdine Friends of the Theatre, and ARTSReach at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts. She has served on numerous committees and has received several community service awards.

Ms. Waller was educated in New York State. She holds an Associate's Degree in Criminal Justice from Nassau Community College where she received an academic award for scholarship in Criminal Justice. Her undergraduate Bachelor's degree is in Communications, with a specialty in Journalism, from Hofstra University where she also received an academic merit scholarship award. Ms. Waller received her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University. Ms. Waller is admitted to practice law in both New York and California.