Walnut Creek Family Law Center, Inc

About

Walnut Creek Family Law Center specializes in family law in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano counties. Our expertise is in high conflict custody disputes, child and spousal support, false allegations, domestic violence, restraining orders, property issues and move-away cases. We have a reputation for aggressive and fair representation.

Walnut Creek Family Law Center is an intensive family law practice with highly experienced attorney's and staff. Our attorneys are well informed in family law, and familiar with most of the bay area family law attorneys, judges and specialists. We provide aggressive representation and are not afraid to battle in court when necessary.

SENIOR ATTORNEY MERRITT WEISINGER

Merritt Weisinger has been an attorney for over 35 years. He was a partner in a general civil trial practice for 19 years in Los Angeles consisting of family law, business litigation, personal injury and malpractice. He has been practicing in Contra Costa County since 1992. His practice is now 100% family law. Mr. Weisinger attended high school in Jamaica, New York . He received his B.A. from Colgate University in 1968. He then attended graduate school for two years prior to law school. He received his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles in 1973. Merritt Weisinger was a partner in an 8 attorney law firm in Los Angeles prior to moving to Northern California to become a partner in Clancy, Firpo and Weisinger. He taught civil procedure and family law in law school for several years as well as several graduate level college courses. He is co-author of the Barron's book for the law school admissions test. Mr. Weisinger is also trained as a family law mediator. He has served as a pro-tem judge and arbitrator and has been on the arbitration panels of the American Arbitration Association, Better Business Bureau, and for several county and local bar associations.


In 1996 Mr. Weisinger became a certified Family Law Specialist. Mr. Weisinger continues his education taking over 35 hours a year of family law related courses including taxes, pension and retirement, child development and current developments in the law. Mr. Weisinger has a reputation as a skilled and aggressive family law litigator who is goal oriented to have cases resolved in accordance with the law and common sense.


ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY ETHAN WEISINGER

Ethan Weisinger was admitted to the bar in 2010.  He has practical know-how experience in the field after extensive years of clerking for the office.  Ethan has successfully  endeavored to bring the firm into the practice of domestic partnership law and areas involving gay family rights.  Ethan currently volunteers for the National LGBT Bar Association and for Bay Area Lawyers For Individual Freedom (BALIF).  Ethan has been an asset to the office, working with clients on a personal level, assisting them with understanding the divorce process and helping to separate out legal issues from the non-legal issues.  Ethan appears in court about 3 days a week, handling support and custody issues. 




KAREN BRISENO

Karen M. Briseno is Mr. Weisinger's full time paralegal for the Walnut Creek Family Law Center . She has been Mr. Weisinger's paralegal for over 11 years. Prior to working for Mr. Weisinger, Ms. Briseno had worked for another Certified Family Law Specialist in Contra Costa County for over 5 years and also worked for a corporate law firm also located in Contra Costa County for a number of years. Ms. Briseno has been working as a paralegal in the legal field for almost 16 years with her primary focus on family law, personal injury, and corporate law. Prior to working in the legal field, Ms. Briseno worked as a technical proposal writer for a large telecommunications company and as a technical engineering assistant for Chevron Corporation's Exploration, Land, and Production Department helping design offshore platforms. Ms. Briseno is author of a pipeflex study book she specifically developed for Chevron Corporation. Ms. Briseno was born and raised in San Francisco and South San Francisco . She has lived in Contra Costa County for 20 years now. She graduated from South San Francisco High School . She took classes at Cal Berkeley, Golden Gate University and Cal State Hayward where she was working on obtaining her civil engineering degree and paralegal studies while working full time at Chevron. Ms. Briseno enjoys working in the legal field and has extensive knowledge of family law, personal injury and corporate issues. She also enjoys spending time with her family.