About Deborah Wald

Deborah H. Wald is the founder and managing partner at The Wald Law Group. A Certified Family Law Specialist, her work has evolved over the past 30 years from a part-time home-based family formation law practice to a multi-disciplinary full service family law firm. Ms. Wald’s goal is to ensure that all individuals, families, and children coming to The Wald Law Group receive the highest quality legal protections available. (Certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.)

Ms. Wald is a custody specialist whose primary professional focus is on protecting children from the impacts of family trauma. With this goal in mind, she handles parentage disputes, custody matters, guardianships, and adoptions (both uncontested and contested), as well as serving as a court-appointed Parenting Coordinator (PC). She recently was recognized for her longstanding work on behalf of LGBTQ+ families by being named the 2022 Leading Family Law Practitioner by the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association. She also was named a 2021 Outstanding Volunteer in Public Service by the Justice and Diversity Center (JDC) of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

Prior to moving into family law, Ms. Wald practiced immigration law with a focus on deportation defense and political asylum. She also is an experienced criminal defense attorney, having started her career as a public defender and then gone on to focus on indigent criminal appeals. She has integrated her immigration knowledge into her family law practice by representing undocumented children in Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) proceedings, as well as acting as a pro bono advisor to the San Francisco Office of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND).