Mary V Halbert

Initially I had hired Mary as a mediator, and then later as a parental coordinator. After I signed a contract to have her as a hired PC, she canceled the mediation contract which had unfinished business — there was no warning, and nothing I could do. As a PC, it took days — sometimes weeks — to get a...n answer from her, and when I finally did, I found out she didn’t respond because she was away. Typically, when working with individuals in this professional my experience has shown they send notifications when they’re out of town — this one did not. There were also instances where Mary would be speaking with another professional then later, I’d be unexpectedly charged for a conversation I not only wasn’t a part of, but also wasn’t unaware of. The whole point to working with Mary was to help us (my ex and I) better co-parent and communicate with one another … I was reaching out constantly asking for rules around improving communication between parties with little help in return. The situation never improved. I highly recommend you look elsewhere and diligently research who you plan to work with before signing any contract.

Mary Halbert is a nice person. Mary Halbert did not remember certain important points that I continually brought up regarding my custody related issues. Towards the end of her two-year appointment, she resigned abruptly and stated she did not know our daughter had been conceived through an egg ...donor. Shocking to say the least until it was revealed that she and Sandra Acevedo, my ex-wife's attorney, were business partners. This information was never disclosed to me so unfortunately, my request for equal visitation with my daughter was denied and I lost time with her as a result. Mary resigned and Sandra left my ex-wife as a result of my disclosure. I requested to tape our meetings so I had proof of the conversations but Mary refused to allow this. I highly recommend finding someone who is an advocate for your child/children and equal parenting and ready to meet the challenges of Family Court.

My ex-wife and I engaged Mary Halbert as a mediator for our divorce and we could not be happier. She was knowledgeable, pleasant, made a very complicated process easy to understand, was sensitive to cost, and everything proceeded exactly as she led us to expect. In particular Mary was very sensiti...ve to when one of us showed signs of worry and immediately zeroed in on the the relevant concerns and relieved them or offered alternatives. I recommend her highly.

Mary Halbert has been my colleague for more than two decades. We are both members of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) which includes attorneys, mediators and therapists. I recommend Mary Halbert as a family law attorney and parent coordinator because of her integrity, knowledg...e and experience. Mary's ability to keep the focus on the best needs of the child is what makes her exceptional. She is able to maintain a calm, consistent approach to conflict resolution in high conflict custody cases. She is truly outstanding in her field.

It's hard to write a review for Mary, because she seems like a very nice and reasonable person, and I imagine that she's a good attorney. She's a terrible parent coordinator, however. I couldn't agree more with the comments written by the other reviewer. I worked with Mary for 2 years, and found ...her to be as non-responsive and unhelpful as the other reviewer did. She was unwilling to make difficult decisions, and her lack of follow through was disappointing. After two years, she couldn't even get my email address or children's names right. Confused by Mary's approach to our case, I spoke with two other families who were working with her, three highly respected family law attorneys in Marin and a mental health professional who happened to be working with a family who was also using Mary as a PC. ALL of them also felt that Mary is quite ineffective as a parent coordinator.