Hon. Patrick J. Mahoney (Ret.) brings to his full-time ADR practice over 45 years of legal experience as a civil litigator, judge, mediator, arbitrator and neutral evaluator. Between 2009 and 2012, Judge Mahoney’s focus was on family law issues while serving as Supervising Judge of the San Francisco Unified Family Court.
The skills he developed as a civil litigator tempered with his broad judicial experience have shaped his ability to work with the parties and counsel in high conflict and complex family law cases as a neutral. As a case manager, Judge Mahoney is exceptional at moving the case forward, and as a mediator, he is skilled at enabling the parties to reach resolution in a timely and cost effective manner by focusing on the parties’ interests, not simply the specific items in dispute.
In his professional career, Judge Mahoney has worked with a broad range of individuals: officers and directors of public companies; partners in accounting, venture capital, law and business entities; elected and appointed public officials; educators; non-profit executives. He has also worked with experts in numerous fields including: accounting, banking, biotechnology, broker-dealer issues, commercial businesses, damages, employment practices, entertainment entities, intellectual property, health clubs, land use, medical issues, personal property valuations, professional malpractice, real estate, sporting goods, stock market, underwriting, water systems, and winery operations. This breadth of experience gives Judge Mahoney keen insight into the business and valuation concerns that often arise in family law disputes.
Judge Mahoney has a broad range of experience in working with youth both inside and outside of the legal system and his efforts have been recognized by the San Francisco community. As a sitting and private judge and as a mediator, Judge Mahoney has addressed a broad range of factual and legal disputes including:
- Temporary and permanent child and spousal support
- Transmutation agreements
- Palimony issues
- Imputation of income in an array of factual settings
- Analysis of expert reports, financial and vocational
- Determination and allocation of child support add on expenses
- Modification of support, retroactive application and enforcement
- Custody and visitation plans in high conflict cases
- Evaluation of expert reports on custody/visitation issues
- Effect of addiction, mental health needs and domestic violence
- Plans for special needs children
- Conflicts over religion, education, activities and scheduling
- Parentage issues
- Formulating plans utilizing custodial experts, parental coaches and/or parent coordinators
- Move away issues, domestic and international
- Domestic violence issues
- Pre and post nuptial agreements including issues of enforceability, support and division of property
- Analysis of separate and community property claims:
- Analysis of financial records, expert reports, tracing issues and tax consequences
- Real property issues including Marsden/Moore and transmutation claims
- Management of the parties’ property interests, Epstein and Watts issues
- Pereira/Van Camp allocations
- Value of partnership interests and stock in closely held corporations
- Valuation of property interests governed by the law of another country
- Retirement plan issues including valuation and distribution of assets
- Personal property valuations
- Claims of undue influence
- Assessment and allocation of debts
- Marvin claims
- Attorney fee issues, Feldman claims and sanctions
- Enforcement of out of state judgments
- Domestic partnership issues
- Elder abuse claims
