Laura A. Wasser

Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles -- Los Angeles

Laura A. Wasser resisted getting into family law, since it was the practice area chosen by her father, Dennis A. Wasser, who founded Wasser, Cooperman & Mandles in 1984.

"I wasn't interested in family law because that's what my dad did," she said. "But then my marriage was falling apart and I asked him for a job as a clerk and he said yes. I got a divorce while I was learning to be a divorce lawyer. It was on-the-job training." Now, she's the managing partner at the powerhouse firm, representing marquee names like Kim Kardashian, Kelly Clarkson, Dr. Dre, Johnny Depp and Maria Shriver.

"That one only took 11 years," she said of Shriver's split from Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was finalized at the end of 2021. Another longrunning saga was Depp's parting from Amber Heard, a contentious divorce that closed in 2017, but has continued with other counsel with other claims at issue beyond the family law context.

A result of the very public acrimony that has often surrounded celebrity breakups has been a new backing away from outin- the-open conflict when high-profile figures divorce, Wasser said. "I call it the evolution of dissolution. Celebrities see what has happened in the past and there's a new attitude." She was quoted in January in a Washington Post feature about public breakups recently featuring what the paper called "aggressively nice" media statements from those involved.

"We have started to make divorce less taboo, less ugly, less 'this is a failure,'" she said. She added that the Depp v. Heard parting may have reverted to acrimony because the couple had no children to protect from scorched-earth litigation--a consideration that she thinks damps down public displays of emotion when there are kids to be considered. "We're slowly reaching a better approach."

Years ago, Wasser said she always tries to lower the temperature between clients and their spouses. "I continue to focus on mediated settlements and collaborative divorce," she noted in a 2016 Daily Journal interview. She advanced that cause by launching an on-line divorce service in 2018 called "It's Over Easy" with prices starting at $750. She has now sold the site to Divorce.com.

The pandemic brought a spike in inquiries to the site, but Wasser thinks a lot of folks dealt well with enforced togetherness. "People hunkered down and figured out new ways to communicate and some came out with a better, stronger marriage. Besides, you couldn't just walk out and date someone else."

A more recent twist has courts giving custody for medical decisionmaking regarding children over vexed questions of vaccinations, mask-wearing and travel. "Another fun topic for people to fight over," Wasser said.

- John Roemer