- Melissa works within the court systems in D.C. and Maryland to represent clients involved in family law litigation, including multi-jurisdictional divorce, custody, support and abduction matters.
- Melissa works with clients to resolve their family law disputes out of court. She harnasses her network of experts to negotiate a comprehensive solution for the client.
- Melissa serves as a neutral intermediary and works with individuals to craft a comprehensive and uniquely tailored solution to their family dispute. She is skilled at using technology to faciliate remote mediation, having taken to this practice over a decade ago to work with her international clients. Melissa is trained as a mediator, facilitator, and parent coordinator.
- Melissa works with clients to resolve their family disputes out of court in the formal collaborative process as counsel for her clients. She also serves as a neutral on international family law issues in collaborative cases.
- Melissa is consulted by counsel in the U.S. and overseas to provide legal information, case strategy, research, legal opinions, work product reviews, and guidance to navigate complex jurisdictional issues, including on issues of custody, relocation, child abduction, support, maintenance, apostille, judgment enforcement, and overseas service of process.
- Melissa testifies as an expert witness on child abduction and child abduction prevention laws, research, and resources, including complex international child abduction situations.
- Melissa can provide assistance in obtaining evidence in the United States for use in foreign family law cases. She can also work with U.S. attorneys and clients to secure evidence and service overseas using the relevant Hague Conventions.
- Melissa is one of the few U.S. mediators experienced in acting as a neutral for complex international parental child abduction cases, including those cases brought under the Hague Child Abduction Convention. She routinely uses technology to facilitate these cross-border processes.
- Melissa is routinely court-appointed to represent the interests of children in their parent's custody case. She also represents minor children in Hague Abduction cases in state and federal court.
- Melissa authored "A Practical Handbook for the Child's Attorney: Effectively Representing Children in Custody Cases," for the American Bar Association.
- Melissa works with organizations to provide advice on creating appropriate processes and structures to help their employees with their family law disputes.
- Melissa designs advanced family mediation training, and has worked with the American Bar Association, the Tokyo Bar Association, the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, and the University of California at Hastings Law to offer these trainings.
- Melissa routinely speaks on complex multi-jurisdictional family law issues and international family mediation.