Lisa Helfend Meyer

LOS ANGELES - Lisa Helfend Meyer likes to represent the underdog. "I like to say I do the cases nobody else wants to do, the dirty cases ... the ones where you really have to fight for your client," she said.

Put another way, "we've always tried to take on challenging and difficult cases with a fresh look at them," she said about the woman-owned firm she co-founded.

For instance, years ago, before the law recognized many varieties of parents, she represented the partner of a biological parent seeking parental rights. She also represented a couple whose attempt to adopt a baby collapsed because the biological father refused to consent. Meyer crafted a way around that difficulty by making the couple permanent guardians of the child.

She also has taken on parents with substance-abuse problems. For instance, some years ago, she represented a mother of three from Manhattan whom other lawyers turned away because of a positive cocaine test. Meyer and her colleagues sought ways for the woman to improve herself so that she could then argue to the court that she would be a better parent because of the mistakes she'd made.

Some of her cases are challenging because they involve famous people. For instance, she and colleague Samantha Spector won a $100 million settlement at the end of 2021 for Nicole Young, the ex-wife of rapper and record producer Dr. Dre. The case involved issues including the validity of the prenuptial agreements, allegations of domestic violence and disputes over intellectual property and spousal support.

During the pandemic, the two attorneys were able to get to know their clients very well. "I think that's why we were so successful in the results we got for her because we knew her life intimately," she said.

Other well-known clients have included Christina Ricci, whose case is pending, and Kelly Clarkson's ex-husband. That case was interesting, Meyer said, because the couple owned property in California, Tennessee and Montana and because all the proceedings were held over Zoom.

She won a hard-fought victory in a case with lawyers as the two divorcing spouses and with difficult issues involving a trust. She represented a husband who had transferred community assets into a trust for the children. The wife complained that she hadn't realized the trust was irrevocable, depriving her of income from the assets after the divorce.

Meyer and her team took the case to trial for 10 days, "and we proved that she knew exactly what she was doing." "Family law is an ever-changing area of practice, and therefore you always want to stay on the cutting edge of it," she observed. "You always want to set yourself apart from the rest of the pact. We've actually been successful in doing that for the last 20 years."

- DON DEBENEDICTIS