DC and MD Matrimonial Lawyer Focusing on Custody, Divorce and Prenups
For over 20 years, Regina A. DeMeo has been helping families in MD and DC with custody and divorce issues either through mediation, litigation or advocacy. She is an alumna of Georgetown University and GW University Law School, who is nationally recognized as a top matrimonial attorney. She is frequently quoted in the media for her ideas to promote healthier relationships and featured in the Washington Post, ABA Journal and Bethesda Magazine for her care and commitment to her clients. As a legal commentator, she has appeared on Washington Post Express Facebook Live, ABC tv, Good Morning America, MMCTV, YouTube and Sirius XM, and has been quoted in various magazines, books and journals across the country.
Regina offers appointments in Maryland and DC. Her areas of practice include:
Latest Blog Posts by GenXSmartie
Setting Clear Boundaries– especially with FUBARs
There are a lot of manipulative people out there, and although it is human nature to want to get your way, there are some that don't know where to draw the line. They are incapable of compromising and want their way at any expense to others. Any sense of remorse or the ability to apologize just isn't within their capacity. Throughout the years, I have had to help people extricate themselves from incredibly unhealthy relationships. There is an overwhelming percentage of the adult population that seems to lack coping skills when dealing with stress, and as a result they use others as their punching bags (verbally, physically, or both). I can't tell you how many cases of addiction I have encountered throughout my years as a divorce lawyer, and thankfully as part of the additional training I pursued post-law school, I learned a great deal about various disorders, including high conflict personalities aka "HCPs." Bill Eddy has written many books about these personality disorders, and there is even a High Conflict Institute that disseminates information on how to deal with HCPs, which may be about 20% of our population according to some NIH studies. Of course these experts are way nicer than I am going to be here-- these people are toxic, and as soon as your gut starts to [...]
Planning for Major Life Events
Most of us are aware of the need to plan for major events-- like a birth, a wedding, buying a house, etc. Yet so few people actually plan for death-- and many try to avoid the subject all together. What is up with that? If you don't deal with certain issues ahead of time, you are going to find yourself dealing with a crisis, or worse dumping the problem on your loved ones. Today's guest on my t.v. show, which will air next week, wrote a book "The Ulimtate To Do List When Your Loved One Dies." Donna Vincent Roa did an incredible job of covering the entire process of dealing with someone's death-- and sadly her inspiration for writing the book stemmed from the sudden passing of her own mother. There are very few comprehensive resources out there that explain what you need to do, and as I read through her book it struck me that it is in many ways like planning a wedding, only you have 3 days to find the venue, caterer, florist, musicians, etc. There is an incredible amount of work that goes into the celebration of one's life, which is essentially how we should view a funeral. We all know it is inevitable, and if we care about making life easier for those we [...]
Wait Nine Months–Or More When Dating
Normally, it takes nine months to make a baby, and once that baby goes off to school it will take that child nine months to complete a grade level all the way through college. So as adults, I suggest you continue with this nine month marker before making any major commitment in a relationship, i.e. an engagement or shaking up together. Why? Because in the beginning of a relationship everyone is on their best behavior, and very few are open about their buried issues. You are both enjoying the high of the honeymoon phase (which may even last up to two years), but to really know someone it takes time. Only over the course of several months do you get to meet each other's family and friends, learn to resolve conflict, build trust and gain understanding of one another. To get to the point where you are fully committed, and can see yourself being with someone for the rest of your life, you need to experience both momentous occassions and every day occurences. As one of my friends jokingly says, until you've been together a full year-- how do you know that on Halloween that guy doesn't turn into a werewolf and howl at the moon? Another one likes to say that until you've had a knock-down drag out [...]
What is the big deal with turning 40?
Throughout the years, a recurring theme with my clients has been this "mid-life crisis" moment that one partner seems to have, and then the whole family's world is being turned upside down. Meanwhile, as some of my friends started to approach 40, I witnessed them get a bit weird, sometimes a little melancholy. Many guys that I have met have described women experiencing complete meltdowns around their 40th birthdays, and all the while that I was taking in all these stories, I never really understood why-- until now. Turns out 40 is the common "ah-ha" moment for many, and although it should be a time to celebrate, it really depends on whether you are ready for it. As my own 40th birthday approaches at rapid speed, I find myself in an amazing state of calm-- but many factors have played into that, most of which truly occurred not by design, but rather pure serendipity. Many see 40 as the half-way point in life, but I never saw it that way so I packed a lot in during my first four decades: I loved being an athlete and scholar in my early years- then I was able to travel significantly and live abroad prior to getting married and establishing my legal career. Although my marriage did not work out, we did [...]