Riva Lange Attorneys is a boutique law firm specialising in family law litigation and mediation. I also offer notarial services. I am committed to assisting my clients to navigate the very difficult path of family law matters. My focus is on ensuring that my client’s needs are met in an empathetic manner and that their matter is dealt with holistically.
I offer discreet, professional services and work with a team of highly specialised advocates, correspondent attorneys, psychologists, social workers, forensic accountants, tracing agents, private investigators and valuators.
I am a qualified mediator associated with FAMSA, and have successfully mediated highly acrimonious family law matters. I am also an accredited commercial mediator and offer commercial mediation in addition to family law mediations.
I believe that family law matters should be mediated wherever possible and where they cannot be mediated, my aim is to assist the parties in arriving at an early settlement in the interests of the family, thereby avoiding further acrimony, trauma and unnecessary legal costs. When a matter cannot be settled amicably, I am a fierce litigator.
My interest in family law was sparked with my parent’s divorce, and this gives me a unique insight into the ramification of a divorce. I have a BA LLB from the University of Cape Town and was admitted in 2005, whereafter I spent a year in London working for the Financial Services Authority in their fraud department. On my return to Johannesburg, I worked for Beverley Clark at Clarks Attorneys where I received excellent mentorship and experience in all areas of family law. I left Clarks Attorneys in 2011 and spent eight months living in Israel, before returning to Johannesburg in early 2012 to set up my own practice. Having lived abroad, as well as in different cities in South Africa, I bring an appreciation for different cultures, and an ability to work within different cultural frameworks to my work.
In addition to divorce work, I have experience in the drafting of parenting plans, maintenance matters, domestic violence, adoptions, Hague convention matters, the drafting of Antenuptial contracts, termination of relationships and the division of property subsequent thereto.