Cari M. Pines

Cari received her Bachelors of Arts degree in English from UCLA in 1989, and her Juris Doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law in 1993 where she participated in the Moot Court Honors Program and was a Quarter-Finalist at the National Cardozo BMI Entertainment Law Competition.

Starting out as one of the youngest female sole practitioners dedicated to family law in Los Angeles, Cari dedicated her practice exclusively to family law. She was Certified as a Specialist in the area of Family Law by the State Bar of California, Board of Legal Specialization in 2004.

Cari volunteers a great deal of time serving the local Bar associations. She served as Chairperson of the Family Law Section of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association for three years, from 2003 through 2006, and continues to serve on the Executive Committee and as Co-Chair of Programs for the Section. She will return to Co-Chair the section with her partner Donna Laurent in the Fall of 2009. As well, she serves on the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Family Law Executive Committee.

Cari has served as Mediator and Judge Pro Tem for the Family Law Departments of Los Angeles Superior Courts. As well, she co-founded the Pro Per Judgment Day projects at the North West and North Valley Districts of the Los Angeles Superior Court. She has also served as the Co-Chair of the Children's Waiting Room Committee, a joint effort of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association Family Law Executive Committee and the Valley Community Legal Foundation to raise funds for the construction of the Children's Waiting Room in the Van Nuys Courthouse and in the San Fernando Courthouse.

Cari has been recognized by her peers by being named a Southern California Super Lawyer's Rising Star in Los Angeles Magazine for 2004 through 2007 (for attorneys 40 years old and under). Thereafter, she has had the honor of being named Southern California Super Lawyer in Family Law in 2009.

Cari's practice has a particular emphasis on issues concerning families of children with special needs. Having extensive personal experience with chronic illness, infertility and children with special medical and developmental needs, Cari possesses great familiarity with the issues that present for families of these children. She has been instrumental in educating clients, opposing counsel and bench officers about these issues and continues to advocate for parents of special needs children in the family court arena. Cari has given presentations on family law to college and elementary school students, mental health professionals, as well as to staff and educators in public schools.

Among all of her other accolades, the greatest blessing in her life are her two young daughters.