Practice Areas: Family Law, Estate Planning
Susan grew up in the North Bay and has lived in Sonoma County for over twenty years. Her practice focuses on divorce, legal separation, parenting, child support, spousal support, property division, domestic partnership issues, premarital and postmarital agreements, estate planning, and issues involving intimate partner violence.
Susan assists clients in traditional litigation, mediation, and collaborative practice, and can help individuals select the approach best suited to the needs of their families. She also serves as a parent coordinator (sometimes called a special master). Susan also enjoys helping clients plan for their futures though her estate planning services.
Susan served on the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Bar Association from 2014 through 2018 and has served on several subcommittees of the Bar Association’s Family Law Steering Committee. Susan was the Co-President of the Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire from 2014 to 2018. She served as the 2010 Chair of the Sonoma County Bar Association’s Family Law Steering Committee and the 2007 President of the Sonoma County Women in Law Board of Directors. She received her J.D. from Empire College School of Law and her B.A from the University California at Davis.
Susan loves to spend time with her family and many pets, in and around Sonoma County.
Bar Admissions: Licensed, #209883, State Bar of California, 2000
Education
• Juris Doctorate, Empire College School of Law
• Bachelor of the Arts in Rhetoric and Communications, University of California at Davis
Licensing/Certification
• Admitted to the State Bar of California in December 2000, Bar Number 209883
Professional Activities
• January 2019 – present, North Bay Legislative Liaison to the Family Law Section Executive Committee of the California Lawyers’ Association
• 2014 – 2018, Co-President, Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire
• 2011 – 2014, Vice President, Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire
• 2011 – 2014 and 2016 – 2018, Member, Sonoma County Bar Association’s Family Law Rules Committee
• 2010, Chair, Sonoma County Bar Association’s Family Law Steering Committee
• 2009 and 2014 – 2018, Member, Sonoma County Bar Association Board of Directors
• 2009 – Present, Member, Sonoma County Bar Association’s Mental Health Liaison Committee
• 2008 – 2010, Member, Sonoma County Bar Association’s Family Law Steering Committee
• 2007 – Present, Settlement Conference Panelist, Sonoma County Superior Court
• 2007, President, Sonoma County Women in Law
• 2006 – 2018, Member, International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
• 2006 – 2018, Member, Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire
• 2006 – Present, Member, Sonoma County Women in Law
• 2006 – 2007, Director, Sonoma County Women in Law
• 2006 – 2018, Member, Collaborative Council of the Redwood Empire
• 2001 – Present, Member, Sonoma County Bar Association
Presentations
• The First Client/Team/Client Meeting, January 2016
• 2015 CP Cal Celebration 10 Recap, April 2015
• Life-Cycle of a Family: Relationship and Family Formation, Relationship Reformation, and the Golden Years, May 2014
• To Marry or Not to Marry, That Is the Question: Legal Implications for Same-Sex Marriage, September, 2008
Our clients highly recommend us. Read why below:
Susan Barrett:
“Someday when I write a ‘best seller’ about this madness, you will definitely be the heroine!”
Michael