Sonoma County Bar Association
Many family lawyers prefer to avoid all aspects of QDROs and division of pensions and other retirement assets in divorce, simply putting very general language into the Judgment and then referring their clients to QDRO lawyers (or non-lawyer QDRO drafters) after the divorce has been completed. That is a strategy that is not helpful or cost effective to the clients and it is not a good strategy for avoiding malpractice. Using examples of attorney mistakes she has seen during her years as a QDRO lawyer, Barbara Ginsberg will provide you with a number of concrete steps you can take, from initial client intake through the date you close the file, which will be helpful to your clients, reduce costs, result in informed and fair division of the community property interest, and prevent malpractice.
Barbara A. Ginsberg
After working in-house for a large, multi-employer union pension plan and also spending several years as an associate at a small family law firm in the East Bay, Barbara A. Ginsberg opened her own office in Oakland in 1990. Although she originally intended to practice both family law and pension and retirement law, she soon found herself handling more and more pension and retirement related issues and fewer and fewer general family law cases. For a number of years she has specialized solely in pension and retirement law practice, primarily the division of retirement assets in the family law context, including the drafting of Qualified Domestic Relations Orders, as well as litigation in regards to contested retirement and pension law issues. She also represents retiree-claimants and beneficiaries in administrative hearings and litigation against retirement plans. More than 300 lawyers and mediators throughout California have referred their QDRO matters to Barbara Ginsberg and many of them use her services on a regular basis. She has presented a number of MCLE courses in or near the Bay Area. Judges have appointed her as the court’s Special Master or §730 expert on a number of occasions for the purpose of researching and providing her opinion on disputed retirement benefit issues and drafting the appropriate orders for submission to the court, and she has also testified as an expert on California law in regards to division of retirement benefits upon dissolution of marriage in courts in Missouri, Alaska, and Washington.
Date: Monday, July 31, 2017
Time: Check-In: 11:45 am; Presentation: 12:00—2:00 pm
Presenter(s): Barbara A. Ginsberg
Place: SCBA Office, 111 Santa Rosa Ave., Ste. 222, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Cost: $80–SCBA Members; $95–Public
MCLE: 2.0 Units Participatory Credit in General Law and 2.0 Units Participatory Credit in Family Law Specialization
Student: $20 (The student discount is now available online for SCBA Student Members. Students who are not members of SCBA may utilize the student discount by downloading the registration form and submitting it with proof of current enrollment to the SCBA Offices. For more information on becoming a member of SCBA, please contact Susan Demers at (707) 542-1190 ext. 18.)
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