Diana Mercer, founder of Peace Talks. Divorce Mediation Services in
Los Angeles, California, is the co-author of
Your Divorce Advisor: A Lawyer and A Psychologist Guide
You Through the Legal and Emotional Landscape of Divorce (Fireside,
2001). After 12 years of practicing as a top divorce litigator, she now devotes
her practice solely to mediation. She has conducted over 2000 mediations, and
has received over 250 hours of specialized, professional Family Law Mediation
training. To learn more about her background and style, take a look at her
Mediation Profile.
As a leading family lawyer, she also presents technical seminars for
attorneys and volunteers in alternative dispute resolution programs in
California and Connecticut. Her comments appear frequently in the Los Angeles
Times, New York Times, and New Haven (CT) Register. She is a graduate of Indiana
University School of Law, where she received the American Jurisprudence Award
for Excellence. She is admitted to practice law in California, New York,
Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and has served as an Attorney Trial Referee,
Special Master, and Custody Court Mediator.
Attorney-Mediator Mercer
has written numerous articles with practical advice on family law matters.
Ms. Mercer's resume
Read an article by noted Attorney-Mediator Barbara Kahn Stark about Marsha Kline Pruett's research project in Collaborative Law.
Read Marsha Kline Pruett and Tamara Jackson's article in the American Bar Association Journal: The Family Law Quarterly: The Lawyer's Role During the Divorce Process: Perceptions of Parents, Their Young Children, and Their Attorneys, 33 FAM. L.Q. 283 (Summer 1999).
Papers Published from the Collaborative Divorce Project
Pilot Study
Pruett, M. K. Divorce in legal context: Outcomes for children. Connecticut Family Lawyer, 13, 1-11, Spring 1998.
Pruett, M. K. & Jackson, T. The lawyer’s role during the divorce process: Perceptions of parents, their young children and their attorneys. Family Law Quarterly, 33 (2), 283-310, Summer 1999.
Pruett, K. D. & Pruett, M. K. Only God Decides: Young children’s perceptions of divorce. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38 (12), 1544-50, Dec. 1999.
Pruett, M. K., Jackson, T, & HoganBruen, K. The best interest of the child: Parents’ versus attorneys’ perceptions. Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 33 (1/2), 47-64, 2000.
Pruett, M. K., Nangle, B. & Bailey, C. Divorcing families with young children in the court’s family services unit: Profiles and impact of services. Family Court Review, 38 (4), 478-500, 2000.
Pruett, M. K. & Jackson, T. Perspectives on the Divorce Process: Parental perceptions of the
legal system and its impact on family relations. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 29 (1), 18-28. 2000.
Intervention Project
Pruett, M.K., Williams, T., Insabella, G. & Little, T. Family and legal indicators of child adjustment to divorce among families with young children. Journal of Family Psychology, 17 (2), 169-180, 2003.
Insabella, G.M., Williams, T.& Pruett, M.K. Individual and co-parenting differences between divorced and unmarried fathers: Implications for family court services, Family Court Review, 41 (3), 290-306, 2003.
Pruett, M.K., Ebling, R. & Insabella, G.M. Critical aspects of parenting plans for young children: Interjecting data into the debate about overnights. Family Court Review, 42 (1), 39-59, January. 2004.
Pruett, M. K. & HoganBruen, K. Joint custody and shared parenting: Research and interventions. In K. D. Pruett and M. Kline Pruett (Eds.) Child custody issues. Child Psychiatric Clinics of North America Monograph. New York: W.B. Saunders, 1998.
Pruett, M. K. & Pruett, K. D. Fathers, divorce and children. In K.D. Pruett and M. Kline Pruett (Eds.) Child custody issues. Child Psychiatric Clinics of North America Monograph. New York: W.B. Saunders, 1998.
Pruett, K. D. & Pruett, M. K. (Eds.), Child custody issues. Child Psychiatric Clinics of North America Monograph. New York: W. B. Saunders, 1998.
Pruett, M. K. & Santangelo, C. Joint custody and empirical knowledge: The estranged bedfellows of divorce. In R. M. Galatzer-Levy and L. Kraus (Eds.), The scientific basis of custody decisions. New York: Wiley, 1999.
Mercer, D. & Pruett, M. K. Your Divorce Advisor: A Lawyer and A Psychologist Guide YouThrough the Legal and Emotional Landscape of Divorce. New York: Scribner (Fireside), February, 2000.
Pruett, M.K. The Collaborative Divorce Project. Yale Psychiatry, 9 (2), 12-13, 2002.
Pruett, M.K. & Pruett, K.D. (Eds.) Special issue: Separated and unmarried fathers and the courts, (Marsha Kline Pruett and Kyle D. Pruett, Eds.), Family Court Review, 41 (3), 2003.
Summary Highlights of the Collaborative Divorce Project. Published in its entirety in the newsletter for the National Association of State Judicial Educators, Summer, 2004.
Pruett, M. K., Ebling, R., & Insabella, G. Critical aspects of parenting plans for young children: Interjecting data into the debate about overnights. Family Court Review, 42 (1), 39-59, 2004.
Pruett, M.K. Insabella, G., & Gustafson, K. The Collaborative Divorce Project: A court based intervention for separating parents with young children. Special issue on Interventions in the Family Court System, (Charlene Depner and Irwin Sandler, Eds.), Family Court Review, 43 (1), 38-51, 2005.
Pruett, M.K. Applications of attachment theory and child development research to young children’s overnights in separated and divorced families. In Marsha Kline Pruett (Ed.), Overnights and Young Children. Essays from the Family Court Review, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, 2005.
Pruett, M.K. (Ed.) Overnights and Young Children. Essays from the Family Court Review, Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, 2005.
In Progress:
Pruett, K.D., Insabella, G., Ebling, R., Gustafson, K., & Pruett, M.K. Young Children’s Perceptions of Divorce: Comparing Intervention and Control Group Children.
