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Stross Wess Cutcher & Levin LLP2025–2026 Underwriter2026–2027 UnderwriterVisit swclfamilylaw.com → Primary ContactSponsorship Contact Jennifer Garcia Human Resources & Office Administrator About the FirmStross Wess Cutcher & Levin LLP is a San Mateo-based family law firm serving clients across primarily San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties, as well as other Bay Area counties based on client need. The firm concentrates on complex, high-asset marital dissolutions, including property characterization and the division of complex assets, child custody and visitation, child and spousal support, premarital, postmarital, and cohabitation agreements, and the enforcement of existing court orders. Because different processes work for different families, its attorneys resolve matters through traditional litigation, mediation, private judging, and consulting. The firm is the successor to Berra Spence; founding partner Richard C. Berra, a Certified Family Law Specialist and past president of the San Mateo County Bar Association, retired in 2021. The firm is a year-round Underwriter, with its employees active throughout the association. Associate Alexandra Sepolen serves on the Boards of Directors of both the Queen’s Bench Bar Association and the Queen’s Bench Foundation. Sepolen also received the association’s 2022 Rookie Award for leading the rebranding of the bar association in honor of the American Suffragette Movement and ratification of the 19th Amendment during our Centennial Celebration. She also received the 2025 Minority Bar Coalition Award for her multidisciplinary approach to her family law practice. Through its 2026–2027 Underwriter package, the entire SWCL team of 17 holds current Queen’s Bench membership. The Firm continues to serve as the bar association's primary contributor to its mentorship and scholarship pipeline programs. This year, the Firm has also contributed to Queen's Bench programs that have historically supported advancement, advocacy, and the pursuit of careers in family law. Our TeamTeam members marked QB Member are current members of the Queen’s Bench Bar Association. PartnersPartners Ellen Winick Stross, Joshua M. Cutcher, Rebecca C. Levin, and Michael J. Wess anchor a practice devoted to complex, high-asset dissolutions. Stross, Cutcher, and Levin are Certified Family Law Specialists, and all four partners have been recognized in Northern California Super Lawyers. Stross, a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, has been named to Northern California Super Lawyers every year since 2005 and is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America. Cutcher and Wess each chaired the Family Law Section of the San Mateo County Bar Association, our sister organization and a fellow Minority Bar Coalition affiliate. Levin also has an extensive background in civil litigation, while Wess previously served as an Assistant District Attorney in Bronx County, New York.
AssociatesEvery associate has ties to Bay Area law schools and excellent academic credentials. Senior Associate Ramon Montijo Jr. graduated second in his class from San Francisco Law School. Sara E. Yip graduated with honors from Golden Gate University School of Law in the top ten percent of her class and recently passed the State Bar of California's Certified Family Law Specialist Exam. Alexandra L. Sepolen, a former Queen’s Bench Law Student Liaison with degrees from Brown, Columbia, and Santa Clara Law, was one of only two women to graduate with honors from the law school's Intellectual Property program. Sepolen was also the first Black woman to chair her law school’s moot court programs and to captain its Trial Team, and the first woman to hold both roles simultaneously. Both Sepolen and Yip have been recognized by Northern California Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers. Haley Kutulas graduated magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from UC Law San Francisco and externed for the Family Violence Appellate Project, a longtime partner of Queen's Bench. Post-bar associates Isabella Sainz-Portillo and Nicole Brittain are also UC Law San Francisco graduates alongside Kutulas; Brittain externed for former San Francisco Superior Court supervising judge Anne-Christine Massullo, now at fellow Underwriter Signature Resolution, and Sainz-Portillo brings experience in restorative justice and with court-involved youth, both central to the work of our sister organization, the Queen's Bench Foundation.
StaffAlongside the attorneys is an experienced professional staff. Paralegals Yesenia Pimentel, Jesse Williams, Emma Franco-Lee, and Giulia Dinolfo bring decades of combined experience, from Spanish-language fluency and digital-asset valuation to a Paralegal Certifcate from UCLA and a LL.M. in progress at USC Gould. Jennifer Garcia, Human Resources and Office Administrator, oversees operations, onboarding, and intake practices for the firm. Receptionist Artemio Marucut is the firm’s welcoming first point of contact, and Steven Smolen has extensive experience as a paralegal and bookkeeper at Bay Area family law firms.
All 17 members of the firm’s team are current Queen’s Bench members through the firm’s 2026–2027 Underwriter sponsorship, 11 of them for the first time this year. We are grateful for their engagement and the firm’s support. Team roster drawn from the firm’s website and the firm’s July 26, 2026 memorandum, current as of August 2026. Queen’s Bench membership reflects enrollment under the firm’s 2026–2027 Underwriter package; re-verify against association records on the day of publication. Corrections may be sent to admin@queensbench.org. The Queen’s Bench Bar Association is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization; sponsorship payments and dues are not deductible as charitable contributions, though a portion may be deductible as an ordinary business expense (consult your tax preparer). Contributions earmarked for the Queen’s Bench Foundation, our 501(c)(3) charitable sister organization, are generally tax-deductible. Sponsorship inquiries: sponsorships@queensbench.org. |