From the time she was in high school, Toriana Holmes knew she would be a lawyer. Now, with 14 years of experience as a California attorney, Toriana brings a wealth of knowledge and a rare combination of skillsets to her work with clients at Moradi Neufer LLP. She serves as a Settlement Conference Officer with the San Francisco Superior Court, a volunteer role in which she assists self-represented litigants in family court, helping them understand the court process and guiding them toward agreements that resolve their remaining issues. That vantage point, seeing family law disputes from the court’s side of the table, shapes how she advises her own clients on when to negotiate, when to mediate, and when litigation is the right path.
Toriana found her calling in family law when she began serving on the Board of Directors for CORA (Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse), and she has since focused her practice on guiding clients through complex family law matters involving divorce, child custody and support, division of assets, and spousal support. In addition to being a skilled litigator, she is a trained divorce mediation attorney and collaborative law attorney, two alternatives to traditional courtroom litigation that allow spouses to make decisions for their family’s future jointly, in a private and confidential setting outside of court. In these processes, couples resolve custody, support, and property division in confidential meetings rather than in a public courtroom, and the court then adopts the agreement they reach; the approach tends to keep costs and conflict lower, keeps financial details private, and leaves parents, rather than a judge, in control of decisions about their children. For clients weighing collaborative divorce or mediation against contested litigation, Toriana is able to explain honestly how each process works and which fits a particular family’s finances, level of conflict, and goals, because she practices on both sides of that divide, and if an out-of-court process breaks down, she is prepared to protect a client’s interests in court. She is currently pursuing certification as a Certified Family Law Specialist (CFLS) through the State Bar of California’s Board of Legal Specialization.
Her custody and support work spans the difficult end of the spectrum: high-conflict custody disputes, co-parenting breakdowns, and post-judgment matters such as child support modifications after a custody arrangement changes, including cases where a parent appears to be voluntarily reducing income and the court must consider imputing earning capacity, matters that often turn on assembling the right financial evidence. A third-generation San Francisco native, Toriana serves families throughout San Francisco and San Mateo County. When not working, she enjoys spending time with her family and her dog and introducing her daughter to her favorite stomping grounds.
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