James Dooley

Attorney Specialties: Divorce, High-Value Property and Income, Tracing and Apportionment, Reimbursement Claims, Business and Real Property, Equity Grants and Royalties, Child Custody, Child and Spousal Support, Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements, Settlement Agreements, Asset and Liability Valuation, Domestic Violence Restraining Orders, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Support Enforcement, Mediation, Discovery and Disclosure

James began his legal career at a prominent Beverly Hills family law litigation firm, where he spent nearly a decade handling complex and high-stakes matters involving high-net-worth individuals. During the first half of his more than 20 years in practice, James developed extensive litigation experience and became a go-to motion litigator for high-stakes issues in high-net-worth family law cases. He also developed sophisticated methods for using technology and software to enhance the organization, management, and analysis of complex case information.

Since relocating to San Diego in 2015, James has handled numerous complex financial and family law matters, including cases involving property characterization and valuation, income and support, reimbursement claims, breach of fiduciary duty, child custody, and domestic violence. While his litigation background enables him to effectively advocate for clients in court when necessary, James generally takes a pragmatic, resolution-focused approach. He seeks to resolve disputes in good faith at the earliest reasonable opportunity, while carefully considering the facts, legal issues, circumstances of the parties, and positions of opposing counsel.

This combination of sophisticated financial experience and extensive litigation background allows James to approach each case with a thorough understanding of the legal and practical considerations that can shape a successful resolution.

James's approach to representing clients is to to devise a tailored approach to their case based on the facts, issues, parties, attorneys and judge. Representative matters include: 

• Obtained a decrease in the temporary spousal support to be paid by a business owner to $20,000 monthly from the $30,000 it had been after the support recipient pursued an increase to $50,000 monthly to a 5-day hearing with expert testimony.
• Obtained orders requiring an adverse spouse who had disguised income and assets to pay sanctions of $100,000, need-based attorney’s fees of $500,000, and 25 months of retroactive spousal support.
• Obtained an award of need-based litigation fees of $750,000 for a client who had faced more than a year of intense litigation by an adverse spouse represented by several law firms.
• Prevailed on four of four motions (that yielded substantive orders) in a single high-stakes discovery proceeding, resulting in orders requiring disclosure and discovery of key information and $26,000 in sanctions against the adverse spouse.
• Obtained sanctions of $170,000 against an adverse spouse for uncooperative litigation conduct in a divorce case.
• Obtained a judgment for a buy-out, instead of an in-kind division, of marital stock in a start-up company at a substantially reduced, date-of-separation valuation, with the stockholder spouse (James’s client) later receiving all of the eight-figure increase in stock value associated with an acquisition deal.

James is a thought leader in family law, regularly contributing pieces for publication and presenting at seminars on trending topics, including through the San Diego Family Law Bar Association. Some recent contributions follow.

• “Case Updates 2021,” SDFLBA Winter Seminar, December 2021.
• “Coercive Control Comes to California,” SDFLBA Brown Bag, February 2021.
• “Marriage Story Will Be Remembered as an Amicable Divorce if SB 1141 Passes,” Times of San Diego, July 2020.
• “You May Be Owed Child or Spousal Support on Stock Options and Not Know it; Or You May be the One that Owes it,” Linked In, October 2019.
• “Evidence in the Age of Uber, Instagram, and Apple Pay,” SDFLBA Brown Bag, May 2019.
• “Machine Testimony and Hearsay – Litigating in the 21st Century,” Enright Inns of Court, March 2018.
• “How a Red-Light Camera Case May Help You Overcome a Sanchez Objection,” ACFLS Family Law Specialist, March 2018.
• “We Should End Inadvertent Submissions to Jurisdiction,” Daily Journal, October 2017.

• Certificate of Tribute, Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law 2014
• Rising Star, Super Lawyers 2009-2011

• Member, Association of Certified Family Law Specialists 2015- Present
• Member, San Diego Family Law Bar Association 2015-Present
• Board of Directors, Casa de las Campanas 2027
• Member, Hon. William B. Enright American Inn of Court 2016-2020
• Beverly Hills Bar Association, Family Law Section 2005-2015

Outside of practice, James’s free time is mostly spent tending to the tournaments and other activities of his two athletic teen children together with his San Diego-native wife.  James is U.S. Navy veteran.