Tag: Family Law

Four decades after founding top law firm, veteran family law attorney Rick Montgomery strikes out on his own

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For more than 40 years, attorney Frederick “Rick” Montgomery has been a fixture in Santa Barbara legal circles. As co-founder in January of 1977 of one of the city’s most esteemed law firms, Fell, Marking, Abkin, Montgomery, Granet & Raney, LLP, he has helped generations of Santa Barbara families and businesses work through their legal challenges.

This month, the preeminent local attorney launched a new chapter in his career. On March 1, he opened a new practice in downtown Santa Barbara across the street from his old firm.

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Guest commentary — Family Law Attorney Maya Shulman Says Courts Are Not the Place to Be

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Family law attorney Maya Shulman is used to hearing from clients who say they want an “aggressive” lawyer, someone they envision boldly striding into court and convincing a judge to rule in their favor.

Most often, Shulman tells them that’s a bad idea.

Courts are unpredictable and hard to navigate, even with a good lawyer by your side, she says. Divorce and custody proceedings can drag on for months, piling stress on clients and their children, and draining families financially. Even then, there are no guarantees that clients will get what they want in court, Shulman explains. Judges, like all humans, have blind spots, biases, and bad days. Taking a case to court means leaving critical, life-impacting decisions to the whim of a judge, and losing control over the outcome, the attorney says.

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