Brian Wise, Esq.

Brian Wise is an experienced family law attorney and litigator. He has been practicing family law in Maryland and Washington DC for over 24 years. He has handled complex matters including divorce, custody, paternity, property division, child support, alimony, and contempt cases. He has also handled many pre-marital, separation, and property settlement agreements. Brian handles complex financial and property litigation matters including retirement, pension, investment accounts, inheritance, source of funds and tracing for non-marital property, business valuation, stock and stock options, monetary award, alimony and alimony buyout concepts, and real estate issues. Brian’s ability to analyze complex cases—utilizing necessary experts—and prepare comprehensive trial strategies allows him to advise clients on the best options for litigation or a negotiated settlement to maximize a successful outcome.

Brian’s combined experiences and analytical approaches have been key to working with parties both directly and indirectly in reaching solutions to their complex problems. He can draw from his litigation experience and extensive knowledge of the court processes to help craft options and solutions that work for individual families. He provides creative options that the court is unable to fashion given the inherent limitations in the adversarial court process.

Brian is highly skilled in representing children in contested custody cases as a best intertest attorney, advocate attorney and child privilege attorney. He has handled complex and high conflict custody and visitation matters. Brian works with custody evaluators—both court appointed and private—mental health experts, and parenting coordinators to provide clients with objective guidance and recommendations.

Brian is a firm believer that the best way to resolve a case is in the conference room through settlement talks, negotiation, and mediation. He is a highly skilled negotiator, always negotiating from a position of strength and leverage. He also provides private mediation to clients in Maryland.

In addition to litigation Brian has presented cases before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and the Maryland Court of Appeals. Brian’s reported cases include Geramifar v. Geramifar, 688 A.2d 475 (1997) concerning equitable adoption; Crabill v. Crabill, 704 A.2d 532 (1998) concerning alimony; Montgomery County Health & Human Services v. P.F., 137 Md. App. 243, 768 A.2d 112 (2001); Dorsey v. Tarpley, 381 Md. 109, 847 A.2d 445 (2004) concerning name change for a minor child; and Trembow v. Schonfeld 901 A.2d 825 (2006), concerning paternity and support for an adult disabled child. Brian has also testified before the Judicial Proceedings Committee in the Maryland General Assembly.

Brian participates in Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program to keep up with the latest developments in the family law area, appellate court decisions, legislative changes and trends. Brian is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the University of Baltimore School of Law.