Marina Beck

Los Angeles

Marina Beck navigates the complex intersection of legal practice and human relationships every day. With a career built on understanding both the letter of the law and the intricacies of family dynamics, she has established herself as a dedicated advocate for her clients, particularly in challenging custody cases.

"The practice of family law is multi-dimensional," Beck said. "Not only does it intersect with various other areas of law, but one must understand family dynamics and human behavior because of the psychological, social, and emotional considerations."

She is co-chair of Elkins Kalt's family law practice group, where her primary focus is the litigation of sophisticated marital dissolution issues and paternity issues. Beck handles high profile, high asset and complex cases multi-jurisdictional cases, representing high net-worth individuals or their spouses in many different fields, including the entertainment and sports industry, tech and business executives, philanthropists, doctors, attorneys, bankers and other professionals.

Her work often involves lengthy litigation processes that require strategic planning and persistence. In one notable case, Beck spent two years building a comprehensive legal strategy to secure decision-making authority for a father whose child's wellbeing was at stake.

"I was able to obtain decision-making authority for a client in a complex custody matter where the other parent's conduct was severely impacting and interfering with the minor child's social and developmental growth and medical care," she said.

Beck's strategy involved multiple stages of litigation to demonstrate the opposing party's pattern of behavior that worked against the child's best interests and violated court orders.

Beck expresses concern about current trends in family law practice, particularly regarding professional conduct. "The decline of civility in family law has had profound implications, increasing the cost of representing clients and taking additional judicial resources that should have been unnecessary," she said.

She points to recent judicial decisions that address inappropriate behavior by legal professionals, emphasizing the need for reform to benefit both clients and the legal system.

"There have been several recent decisions admonishing counsel for improper conduct," Beck said. "Correcting this decline is necessary to maintain not only the well-being of the parties in already highly contentious proceedings, but also for the efficiency of the legal process."

Despite the often-contentious nature of divorce and custody proceedings, Beck maintains that resolution need not be combative. As she puts it, "While love may be a battlefield, divorce proceedings don't have to be a battleground."