Top Best Family Lawyers | 20562 Available

Maryory Baez obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Business from Hofstra University, and received her law degree from Florida Coastal School of Law. During law school, Ms. Baez was a clinician in the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Florida Coastal School of Law, providing pro bono legal services to low income individuals and families. Upon graduation, Ms. Baez began her legal career specializing in immigration. She has since expanded her legal practice to cover criminal defense, divorce and family law matters.. Maryory Baez is a member of the New York State Bar Association - Family Law Section, Dominican Bar Association, New York Women's Bar Association, and Hispanic National Bar Association - Region II.

I have moved to Colorado!  I am currently licensed to practice law in Colorado and in Texas.. I have practiced family law (including divorce, child support, child custody, modifications, enforcements)  in Texas from 1990 to 2022 and since 2022 in Colorado.   I believe that treating others with respect and dignity inspires those others to treat you the same way and this motto has always served me well, both personally and professionally.  I do not believe that a lawyer should create chaos or cause harm in any family.  Families can indeed be "restructured" successfully - without the often permanent emotional and financial damage that some traditional family lawyers endorse.. I am very proud of my reputation for integrity with my peers (lawyers and Judges) and that reputation along with my many years of experience offers my clients unique opportunities to work through their family issues.  I am able to work together respectfully with other lawyers to encourage creative and family-specific solutions for my clients.  Traditional litigation can be like war in terms of harm to folks, both financially and emotionally, and it leaves permanent scars on children.  There is a better way!. I have been practicing family law using the "Collaborative" method since 2004.  Collaborative family matters save your sanity and your family relationships.  Collaboration enables spouses or parents to process a family matter entirely outside the court system - leaving total control of the outcome of parenting and financial decisions to the spouses or parents themselves.  You literally never have to step foot in a courtroom, or air your "dirty laundry" in public, or suffer the indignity of having a complete stranger (even the most well-meaning and outstanding Judge is a stranger to you) dictate to you how to manage your life, your family relationships, your children, or your finances.   Check out Colorado Collaborative Divorce Professionals or Foothills Collaborative Divorce Professionals for more information.. In a Collaborative case your lawyers and other allied neutral professionals (examples of allied neutral professionals: a parenting professional, a mental health professional, a family communications facilitator, a divorce financial professional) work together to offer creative solutions and develop unique family-specific options for the spouses or parents to consider.  It is like a full team effort working towards the goals set by the parents or spouses themselves at the outset of a case, and completely opposite the traditional mud-flinging, lawyer head-bashing, and anger-supporting, chaos of the courtroom environment.  In a collaborative case your lawyers help you choose the allied professionals to work with during the case depending upon your own family issues and needs.  These allied professionals do not represent either party but offer neutral transparent guidance and help create options for solutions to your own family issues.. Enthusiasm for the benefits offered to families by the Collaborative process among lawyers (those who prefer to be problem solvers and not those who encourage hostility and aggression), social workers, counsellors, and enlightened Judges, has really taken off across the country and in Texas we now have a well developed collaborative family law protocol and many successful collaborative practice groups. Collaborative practice groups comprise lawyers, mental health professionals, financial professionals and parenting professionals who work together in a local area and who collectively adhere to a certain set of ethical and educational policies. I update my collaborative training education every single year, participate in local and state wide collaborative groups, and am an active collaborative divorce practitioner. I strive to offer the collaborative process as an option to my divorce clients who seek a less damaging way to restructure their lives. I am also a certified mediator and able to help negotiate settlement agreements for folks who prefer to keep their misery out of the public view and who wish to make decisions for themselves and to move forward with their lives much sooner than they can with traditional litigation. There really is a better way to divorce!. I will be happy to discuss these options with you and to answer your questions!

I am a 1994 graduate of the University of Denver College of Law and have been associated with the firm since 1995.  My areas of practice include Estate Planning and Probate, Real Estate with an emphasis in Community Association Law, Family Law, and general civil litigation.  I am married with three children and live in Arvada.  I love the practice of law and am lucky to be working with a great group of lawyers. I enjoy trail running, downhill and backcountry skiing, and listening to and discovering new music.  Thanks for researching my profile and I hope we can help you with your legal needs.

Divorce work can be trying and can also be challenging and sometimes very complicated, but because I care so much about people, I find joy in doing the job every single day. Having worked as a family law lawyer exclusively for the past 20 years I can easily say that I am an expert in my field and that I have built a team of experts that provide excellent service and top-notch legal skills.  I have had the opportunity to enhance or help the lives of many individuals and their families during their most difficult and challenging times. Whether it is a divorce, a custody battle, a modification of maintenance or child support or modification of a custody or parenting time order, defense or prosecution of a contempt matter or mediation of one of those matters, I have been there to ease my client's minds and provide them with top notch legal representation (or settlement, in the event of mediations). My goal is always to negotiate an amicable settlement or resolution, but when matters require trial or court, I have a total of 24 years of litigation experience and I have taken hundreds of cases to trial. I am a published author of a legal article, a continuing legal education presenter and currently the Vice Chair of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. And a former Chair of the Colorado Bar Association's Family Law Section. My former associate, Jamie Rutten, and current associate Melina Moses have filed several appeals and with two, successful in creating or upholding new law related to non-parent paternity and maternity actions.  Every year since 2011, my peers rated me as a Super Lawyer, and since 2012 I have been rated as a Top 100 Colorado Super Lawyer, a Top 50 Colorado Women Super Lawyer, and since 2015 a 5280 Top Lawyer. I have been named Best Lawyer in the family law  and mediation fields by Best Lawyers, and CCB has been named a Best Firm by the same and US News.  I have built multiple teams of excellent, highly-rated family law lawyers during my years as a mentor and leader of the family law section in our firm(s).  I and am proud to say my team is as successful as I am at providing the specialization and expertise a client needs in a family law case.  My personal specialty is working on high asset, high net-worth, high income divorce and custody matters. I also work on many divorces where business are involved, and/or complex financials, trusts, pre-nuptials and pos-nuptials, and other complex issues. My team includes ten associates, ranging in gender, age, and years of experience and we are supported by 5 experienced family law paralegals.  My firm, Ciancio, Ciancio Brown, P.C. (CCB) has total of 15 attorneys that specialize in most "typical" areas of law, including business disputes, real estate, commercial and civil litigation, criminal law, personal injury law, wrongful death, and employment law. Our strengths include our "specialization" our "expertise" and our "dedication" to our clients. This gives me, my team and our firm the edge that is necessary in today's complex and challenging legal world.   We practice law throughout the State of Colorado with offices located in Denver, Broomfield,  and Breckenridge. Recently we also acquired a long-time all mediation/arbitration business that handles all types of family law mediations, where we offer a variety of mediators, experience, rates, hours, and all new high-tech means of scheduling and settlement procedures. If you need a legal expert I hope you consider CCB in your time of need, and I promise you'll be impressed.

Maile is a Colorado native with legal experience in several counties throughout the state. She became an attorney in order to help other people and to make legal assistance accessible to persons from all walks of life. Maile has practiced family law since 2008 and previously worked for one of the nation's largest family law firms. She is also a trained Child and Family Investigator. Additionally, Maile has experience in several other areas, including but not limited to collections, debt settlement, civil litigation, landlord/tenant law, criminal defense, contracts and LLC/Corporations.

Rebecca I. Gumaer is 100% focused on family law.  I have handled thousands of cases involving spouses and parents transitioning through the dissolution and custody process.  I enjoy breaking marital agreements. I enjoy defending against Common Law Marriage claims.  I enjoy seeing children secure in their relationships with both parents.

Rachel L. Young is a Senior Attorney at Setter Roche Smith & Shellenberger, LLP. Ms. Young was admitted to the Bar of the State of Colorado in 2010 and has maintained an active litigation practice since that time. She was awarded the 2017 Nationally Ranked Top 10 Under 40 for excellence in the field of family law in 2017 by the National Academy of Family Law Attorneys.. Ms. Young’s practice is focused in the areas of family law, contracts, and probate, with additional litigation experience in ethics, criminal, malpractice, and juvenile matters. Ms. Young is dedicated to assisting her clients through difficult times and complex court systems. Within her practice, she is skilled at representing her clients in negotiations and courtroom proceedings.. Ms. Young prides herself on her ability to communicate, both orally and in writing, superior work ethic, and analytical reasoning skills, and Ms. Young’s attention to detail, directly translate to her practice areas and enable her to provide strategic legal representation. By cultivating attorney-client relationships and strong lines of communication, she is able to provide clients with a better understanding of their legal issues which enables the client to more fully participate in their legal matter and make informed decisions. She understands the needs of her clients and takes the time to understand the client's goals in order to fight for the best possible outcome, advocating for their financial and emotional well-being throughout every step of the legal process.. Prior to joining Setter Roche Smith & Shellenberger in 2020, Ms. Young served as Managing Attorney and Senior Family Law Attorney, overseeing and training attorneys and paralegals. She has litigated in courtrooms across the State of Colorado from Durango to Craig and Fort Morgan to Grand Junction.. Ms. Young earned her Juris Doctorate at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in Denver, Colorado. She completed her dual undergraduate degrees at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, earning the Departmental Award of Excellence in her senior year, amongst other accolades.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Attorney Christina Lukacsy Friedman earned her B.A. in history from the University of California, Davis. After working in the financial industry and starting a family, Christina then went on to pursue her passion for family law by attending the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. She has called Colorado home since 2012.. During law school, Christina interned for Colorado Legal Services in their Family and Children Unit, the Honorable Ross B.H. Buchanan, and was a judicial fellow for the Honorable Michael J. Vallejos in the 2nd judicial district.. Christina has dedicated her legal career to the practice of family law, which has also included estate planning. She has worked on complex family law cases including dissolutions of marriage, APRs (custody), post-decree modifications, relocations, putative and common law marriages, petitions for invalidity of marriage, and prenup invalidation and enforcement. She comes to Halligan with a comprehensive command of family law and its interplay with other areas of practice.. Christina’s strongest skills include her candor and ability to size up a situation, articulation of her client’s needs, and sensitivity to clients during what will be, for most, one of the most difficult transition stages of their lives. Christina knows first-hand the high stakes at play in family law proceedings, and her experiences have informed her own understanding and perspective of being a family law practitioner, making her a committed and dedicated advocate for her clients.. In her spare time, Christina enjoys cycling, gardening, playing piano and guitar, and spending time with her two children while taking advantage of all the outdoor splendor Colorado has to offer.

A Colorado native, I have also lived in New Mexico, Florida, Texas, and Kentucky.  Somehow, I always manage to find my way back to this beautiful state.  Beyond law, I also enjoy watching (but am too broken to play) rugby and hurling.  My other recent pasttimes include hiking and sightseeing with friends, potlucks, painting, singing, and pretending to play the piano.  Prior to working as an attorney, I was a minister, I served on the board of a non-profit helping low income individuals, and worked for over ten years as a paralegal in the bankruptcy field.

As a dedicated family law attorney, Ben Mueller has a proven track record of advocating for clients with integrity and sincerity -. With sincere advocacy, a collaborative team approach, and broad legal expertise, his personal legal practice is dedicated to achieving the best outcomes for clients while fostering the development of future lawyers.

I have lived and practiced family law in Colorado since 2005, after moving from Massachusetts, where I began practicing law in 1990, and New Hampshire, where I became licensed in 1995.  While I had a more varied practice on the east coast, including civil litigation, family law, social security disabilty, equine law, and assisting veterans with benefit claims, I have focused exclusively on representation of parties in family law disputes for the past 21 years.  I take great pride in representing people who are trying to move forward from highly stressful conflicts with a former spouse or signficant other.  Neither the disputes nor the legal process are very easy to naviagte for parties involved in family law litigation.  People are frightened that they will lose their assets, their home and access to their children.  I help people move through the legal system as smoothly as possible and I advocate on their behalf to recieve the most assets and access to their children that the law provides in their specific situation.. I recognize that for the vast majority of people, mediation is a less stressful and more cost effective manner of resolving their disputes.  Therefore, I completed mediation training through the Colorado Bar Association and have been mediating family law disputes and resolving disputes for couples in conflict since 2008.