Divorce During COVID-19: So, the Quarantine Didn’t Make You and Your Spouse Closer?

Topic:

This presentation is the third of an eight-part series exploring the impact of COVID on various legal focuses.

This presentation will cover the impact COVID-19 has had, and is anticipated to have on marital dissolution, child support, child custody and alimony with a focus on impacts on asset values and income streams. This presentation will discuss the impact COVID-19 has had on marital dissolution filings, pendente lite hearings, discovery, settlement, and modifications. In addition, this presentation will discuss the future of Court Proceedings and what to expect when arriving at the Courthouse.

Focus: Divorce, Business Valuation, Income/Expense Analysis

Space for this series is limited, be sure to sign up quickly! To sign up, please click here.

Moderator:

• Charlie Rains

  As a managing member at Vallit Advisors, Mr. Charles W. Rains has decades of experience performing business valuation and litigation support services, including commercial damage calculations, lost profit analyses, forensic accounting and intellectual property valuations.
  Learn more about Charlie here. 

Presenters:

• Kris Hallengren

  As a managing member at Vallit Advisors, Kris has over 21 years’ of experience, the last 16 of which, have been solely focused on dispute consulting, forensic accounting and business valuation as well as expert witness testimony in complex litigation matters.
  Learn more about Kris here. 

• Craig P. Ward

  Craig is a partner of the firm whose practice is concentrated in the areas of family law, criminal law and general civil litigation.  In May of 1993, Mr. Ward passed the Certified Public Accountant examination.  As an accountant in the Baltimore area from 1990 to 1994, Mr. Ward devoted most of his time to the areas of taxation, audits and litigation support work.  Prior to joining the firm in October of 1998, Mr. Ward had the privilege of serving a fifteen month clerkship with the Honorable John Grason Turnbull, II of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County.  Craig is an active member of the Baltimore County Bar Association having served as the Chair of the Family Law Committee for the Baltimore County Bar Association (2011-2012) and Vice Chair of the Family Law Committee (2010-2011).  Since joining the Firm in 1998, Craig has served on various other Committees of the Baltimore County Bar Association, including the Family Law Committee, Bench Bar Committee, and Criminal Law Committee.

  Practice Areas

  • Family and Divorce Law
  • Criminal Law
  • Litigation

  Bar Admissions

  • Maryland
  • Maryland Court of Appeals
  • United States District Court for the District of Maryland
  • United States Tax Court

  Education

  • Loyola High School (1988)
  • Towson University (B.S., accounting major, 1992)
  • University of Baltimore School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, 1997)

  Professional Associations, Achievements and Honors

  • Baltimore County Bar Association
  • Chair of Family Law Committee (2011-2012)
  • Vice Chair of Family Law Committee (2010-2011)
  • Family Law Committee (1999-Present)
  • Criminal Law Committee (approx. 2003-2009)
  • Maryland State Bar

  AV Preeminent

  To learn more, visit Craig’s website by clicking here.

• The Honorable Diane O. Leasure

  Judge Diane O. Leasure is retired from the 5^th Judicial Circuit (Howard, Anne Arundel and Carroll counties) where she served as the Fifth Circuit Administrative Judge and the County Administrative Judge for the Circuit Court for Howard County for almost 10 years.  Prior to her 16 years as a Circuit Court judge, she was a Principal of Fossett & Brugger, Chartered where she was the Chair of the Litigation Practice Group.  Her practice was primarily concentrated in the areas of construction, business and franchise litigation.

  Judge Leasure was a member of the Conference of Circuit Judges, including serving as its Chair in 2008-2010, was a member of the Judicial Cabinet and the Judicial Council and was an Inaugural Science and Technology Fellow in The Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center (ASTAR).  During her tenure on the bench, she served on and chaired numerous judiciary committees.   She continues to serve as a faculty member for the Judicial College and other CLE programs.  Judge Leasure is a Past President of the Prince George’s County Bar Association, the Howard County Bar Association and the Honorable James McGill Inn of Court.

  After her retirement from the bench, she was appointed by the Governor to serve as Chair of the Maryland State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy and to serve as a member of the State Advisory Council on Administrative Hearings.

  Since 2012, Judge Leasure has served as a mediator for the Court of Special Appeals’ mediation program.  In addition to serving as a Senior Judge, she served as a Senior Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.  She has a private mediation and arbitration practice and to date has conducted hundreds of mediations and arbitrations.  She mediates cases pending (or anticipated to be filed) in both state and federal courts.  Judge Leasure is a member of the Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence.  She received her mediation training through the American Bar Association’s 40-Hour National Mediation Training for Judges taught by faculty from Pepperdine University’s Straus Institute, and has taken advanced mediation courses offered by the Straus Institute (in conjunction with the University of Vermont School of Law and the Center for Dispute Resolution at Maryland Carey School of Law) and advanced mediation training programs offered by the Court of Special Appeals.

  Judge Leasure is a neutral with the American Arbitration Association and is on both the mediation and arbitration list of neutrals.  In 2020, she was selected for membership and inducted into the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals (invitation only organization) for both mediations and arbitrations.

  Judge Leasure’s honors include the Anselm Sodaro Judicial Civility Award from the Maryland State Bar Association, The Connie Sapp Award from the Women’s Bar Association of Howard County, The Beverly Groner Family Law Award from the Maryland State Bar Association’s Family and Juvenile Law Section Council, the Women’s Law Center of Maryland’s Rosalyn B. Bell Award and The Daily Record’s Leadership in Law award. She was selected as one of The Daily Record’s Top 100 Women three times, culminating in her induction into The Circle of Excellence.  Judge Leasure was the recipient of the 2014 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Award from the Student Bar Association of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.
  Learn more about Diane here.