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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

SPECIAL REPORT: Couple United In Divorce

During the last 44 years, attorney Don Zelinsky has represented thousands of clients in their divorces – a feat he couldn’t have accomplished without the help of his wife of 50 years, Cindy Zelinsky. Married in 1965, the couple has worked side by side at the Law Office of Donald Zelinsky for decades, helping couples dissolve their marriages through the legal system, all while maintaining a healthy relationship themselves. “We think it’s going to work out, and as soon as the honeymoon is over, we’ll let you know,” Don Zelinsky joked about his marriage. The two met on a blind date, were engaged two weeks later and married two months after that. Now two kids and four grandchildren later, the duo still run one of the most successful family law practices in the San Fernando Valley. Over the years, Zelinsky has represented numerous celebrities, athletes, actors and even a Playboy centerfold, but confidentiality agreements prevent him from sharing names. He has never marketed his practice and has established his business completely through word-of-mouth referrals. He has had cases referred to him by other lawyers, judges and even a Supreme Court justice. Family law teamwork A mainstay of the legal sector in the greater Valley region, family law is complex because of what’s at stake. Money, children, businesses and emotions come into play in a divorce, presenting difficult challenges for attorneys in the thick of it. This Special Report examines family law through the practices of various attorneys. In addition to the Zelinskys’ experience, the report includes profiles of Jim Reape, who discusses how the economic cycle affects family law; Ron Supancic, an advocate for the new cyberstalking law; and Michelle Daneshrad, who tries to make divorces more cooperative and less confrontational. The profiles begin on page 19. During his years in divorce courts, Don Zelinsky has seen the system become more child-friendly. “I think California is one of the biggest leaders in the issue of child custody and the problems that the children have,” he said. “They’ve come to the point now where most judges will listen to the children and hear what they have to say about who they want to live with and more importantly why. Courts have become much more in tune with the needs of children.” Don and Cindy Zelinsky work closely together at their Woodland Hills practice, but they have different tasks. She takes care of all administrative work, paralegal issues and also acts as a counselor to many of the clients. She is in charge of scheduling, proofreading and helping clients cope with the emotional difficulties of divorce. Don Zelinsky typically works on a maximum of 15 to 20 cases a month and is at a point in his career where he can pick and choose which ones to take. His fees run about $600 an hour. On a typical day without court appearances, the couple drives to work together from their Woodland Hills home, along with their miniature pinscher, Tiki, arriving between 7:30 and 8 a.m. During the day, Don Zelinsky will see approximately one to four clients and do his research, paperwork and trial preparation. Besides the administrative tasks, Cindy Zelinsky will provide mental and emotional support for the clients and their children. “She relaxes them,” said Don Zelinsky. “She makes them understand that they aren’t the only ones going through this situation.” The Zelinskys share their office space with fellow family law attorney Melody Dosch, who has known the pair for approximately five years and has worked with them for more than a year. “They have a healthy respect for one another,” Dosch said. “They certainly push each other’s buttons sometimes and despite that, it all works.” The Zelinskys have a clearly defined protocol in their duties, but they make it a point that whatever happens in the office stays in the office and the same rule applies at home. “We don’t take the office home and we don’t take home to the office,” said Don Zelinsky. “We’ve learned to delineate which is which and not bring one into the other.” Joanne Irving, a clinical psychologist and executive adviser at Insight 2 Action in Bethesda, Md., calls for couples that work together to keep office and home life separate. “Both the pros and cons (of being married and working together) have to do with the boundaries between the roles and how clearly they are defined,” Irving said. “When the boundaries bleed into each other, that’s when things start to get complicated and confusing.” Benefits of spouses working together include having a common understanding of one another and a deeper loyalty toward the business and each other, Irving said. The challenges with such arrangements come from work-related stresses in the relationship. “It’s all about really clear communication and perhaps overcommunicating,” she said. Learning from divorce After graduating from the University of West Los Angeles’ School of Law in Inglewood, Don Zelinsky joined the California State Bar in 1972. He started practicing securities law, and to gain trial experience, started doing medical malpractice defense for insurance company Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in Hartford, Conn. He soon found his niche in family law and decided to go into it full time. Zelinsky is a past president and current member of the San Fernando Valley Bar Association and is also a member of the Los Angeles County, Beverly Hills and California State bar associations. He has lectured at family law seminars for fellow attorneys and judges and is an adviser for legal programs at Watterson College in Sherman Oaks and Pierce College in Woodland Hills. “My wife said to me that if I don’t stop doing all that and start coming home at night, especially after our kids have grown up and moved out, that I might have to represent her in our divorce,” he recounted. “I said I can’t afford that – I charge too much.” Ironically, the Zelinskys have seen firsthand how ugly divorce can get, which has helped them preserve their own marriage. Don Zelinsky thinks lack of communication is the main reason for divorce, and he knows from experience that once communication breaks down, everything else disintegrates. “We wouldn’t do some of the things (the clients) do to each other just out of spite,” said Cindy Zelinsky. “When you love somebody, you want the best for them.” More than 90 percent of the Zelinskys’ cases have a child custody conflict, and he has received threatening phone calls from husbands of the wives he has represented. In spite of all the negativity associated with divorce, the Zelinskys feel a sense of pride in helping people through their darkest times. “When the people come here, whether it’s a man or a woman, they’re so fragile,” said Cindy Zelinsky. “But by the time their divorce is almost final, they’re happy, they’re stronger and they’re ready to go on.”

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