About Attorney Amy Saunders
Our lead attorney, Amy Saunders is a highly experienced litigator in business, real estate and family law. She has represented cases locally and at the Supreme Court level. Attorney Saunders has succeeded in 100% of her cases before the Supreme Court, Supreme Judicial Court and Massachusetts Appeals Court and was legal counsel in what would become the most important decision of the year, by Massachusetts Lawyer Weekly for changing the way bias cases are handled in Massachusetts. Amy Saunders was also the lead attorney for the largest privately held company in the United States in highly complex business negotiations and real estate matters.

In the height of her success in business and real estate law, Attorney Saunders unexpectedly faced her own divorce and was thrusted into the role of a client. Amy became a single mother and divorcee, and at that time, she decided to devote the remainder of her career to improve the process of divorce with a personal level of understanding. Recently remarried, she also knows that life does get better after divorce – even when it seems hard to believe during such a difficult process. 

Our practice specializes in: 

Divorce
Modification of Divorce Judgments
Alimony
Child Custody
Child Support
Paternity Actions

While our practice does focus on divorce and related matters, we do also offer extensive business and real estate law services. Feel free to contact our office for a free consultation to interview our team.

Other areas of experience:

Adoption
Amy and her staff offer an experienced approach to adoption, managing your case from the moment you retain our office through finalization of your adoption. We evaluate the needs of adoptive families, and help you develop achievable goals that meet your unique needs. We continue to offer support to adoptive families after a child has been placed in your home, including preparing you for the finalization hearing. When we represent a birth parent, we give the same high level of care and professionalism.

Alimony
Alimony and spousal support laws in Massachusetts have recently changed. Spousal support is now divided into reimbursement alimony, transitional alimony, rehabilitative alimony or general term alimony. General term alimony is now subject to durational limits based on the length of the marriage. General term alimony can now be terminated upon retirement or cohabitation. Rehabilitative or transitional alimony are meant to temporarily support a spouse until he or she can get back on his or her feet. Another significant change is the ability to seek a modification of an existing alimony/spousal support order based on the change in the new law.

Business law
Amy Saunders represents the largest privately held corporation in the United States providing an extensive level of experience in Business and Real Estate law.

Child Custody, Support and Visitation
Our attorneys bring to the practice of Family Law intense sensitivity to issues between parents and children.  We consider the entire family dynamic, parental fitness, and the developmental needs of children, while striving to promote the best interests of the children of separating and divorcing parents.  We represent mothers, fathers, same sex partners, and grandparents in disputes involving custody, visitation, and geographic location.

Contractual Agreements
Our experience representing contractual agreements for the largest privately held corporation in the United States has afforded our team with invaluable experience for our clients.

Divorce and Separation
Our team handles issues incident to the dissolution of the marital partnership, including valuation and distribution of all types of closely held and family businesses, professional licenses, degrees and practices, trusts and partnerships.  We counsel our clients to explore reasonable settlement options, but when settlement cannot be reached, we develop a creative and effective litigation and trial strategy to enhance our client’s ability to achieve favorable results.

Domestic Violence and Restraining Orders
Domestic violence is an extremely serious offense and should not be taken lightly. If you are the victim of domestic violence or are being charged with domestic violence you need to seek a team that can help you understand how to protect your rights and the safety of your family.

Durable Power of Attorney
Durable power of attorney documents are legal documents by which a person authorizes another to act on the person’s behalf. Typically, the durable power of attorney documents relate to financial or business transactions such as real estate or banking transactions. The power of attorney can be broad in scope, giving an agent the ability to make any and all decisions, or you can limit the agent’s authority by specifying the types of decisions the agent can make. Durable means that the power of attorney remains in effect when, and if, you become incapacitated.  Also, the selection of the agent or attorney-in-fact to carry out or utilize the power is important.  The agent must be trustworthy so that the use of the power is not abused.

Estate Planning
A sound estate plan can give you control over your assets and spare your loved ones from unnecessary uncertainty and expense in handling your estate. If you are creating an estate plan, it is important to consult with an attorney who is knowledgeable in this complex area of law.

Health Care Proxy
A health care proxy is a legal document through which you appoint someone to make decisions about your care for you if you are unable to make those decisions for yourself. The person that you identify as your health care proxy has broad authority over your care and has access to all of your medical records.

Landlord & Tenant
We provide comprehensive property management services including evictions and lease negotiations.

Living Wills
A living will allows you to specify your preferences for medical care should you become terminally ill or it is not expected that you will recover from physical or mental disability or disease. It can give general guidelines, such as requesting no life-support if you are terminally ill, or specific instructions, such as banning the use of a breathing tube.

Modification of Court Orders
If you are seeking the enforcement or modification of an existing court order, we have extensive experience at the trial and appellate level in pursuing the rights of our clients. 

Name Change
Massachusetts law authorizes a court in a divorce case to allow a divorcing spouse to resume the use of a maiden name or the name of a former spouse in the divorce judgment. Additionally, in an adoption decree the court may change the child’s name should the petitioner so request.

Paternity
We handle all proceedings involving paternity and related child support and child custody issues.  We have successfully negotiated several agreements in this area.

Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements 
We negotiate and draft pre-nuptial, post-nuptial to insure the preservation of pre-marital property, and to avoid future disputes concerning the division of marital property.  Our clients request these agreements to avoid misunderstandings between spouses and their families in the event of the dissolution of the marriage.

Real Estate Law – Commercial and Residential
Our team has extensive experience in all aspects of commercial and residential real estate law.  We have represented some of the largest companies in the United States, as well as local residential buyers and sellers. Our borad range of residential and commercial experience provide our clients with the experience needed for a successful transaction.