Elizabeth Vorhees

Elizabeth Vorhees began working with domestic violence victims in 1995. She is a State Certified Domestic Violence Advocate, having completed her training that same year, and a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for Santa Cruz area foster children.

At Modern Family Law, she’s the managing partner of the firm’s San Jose office and handles divorce, child custody, move-away cases and same-sex divorce and LGBT family matters among other related matters.

Vorhees has had many successes in her work, including helping a woman and her two children obtain a restraining order against her abusive husband and securing orders for him to complete parenting classes.

“Now, she and her soon-to-be ex-husband co parent their children very well together,” she said. “His attitude and his behavior are much improved and they are able to focus on the well-being of their children.”

In addition to her work as an attorney, Vorhees is also a mediator and has recently settled several divorce cases with generous terms for her clients.

“I think one of the most significant challenges that any family law attorney faces is being able to sit with the client through their very strong emotions, and counsel them to make decisions from a place of logic,” she said. “Often clients approach their cases from the perspective that they need a “win”. This is challenging because I want them to have that ‘win’ but also make decisions that will be in their long-term best interest.”

Vorhees said she has noticed an increase in the number of couples in their 70s and 80s filing for divorce, as well as an increase in domestic violence cases since the pandemic. She believes that the courts allowing remote access to hearings has enabled parties to attend court more easily and encouraged more equal access to justice.