Ms. Mains is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A. Political Science 1991) and received her Juris Doctorate, cum laude from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1996. She was admitted to practice law in the State of Illinois in 1996 and the State of California in
1997.
Prior to attending law school, Ms. Mains lived in Vienna Austria for one year and worked for the United Nations, International Atomic Energy Agency, investigating the trafficking of nuclear bomb components. Following, Ms. Mains lived in London, England for one year and worked as an assistant to Lord Bridgeman, House of Lords, Parliament.
During law school (1993-96), Ms. Mains was a member of the Loyola Law Journal and a summer associate at the firm of Altheimer & Gray in Chicago, Illinois. She also clerked for Judge Robert Ginsberg of the Bankruptcy Court and was a member of the Appellate Moot Court Team, which competed in London & Ontario, Canada. In addition, Ms. Mains spent a summer during law school studying European Community law in Rome, Italy at Loyola’s Rome Campus.
After Ms. Mains graduated from law school, she returned to her home state of California and worked for the law firm of Bennett & Welch, in San Francisco assisting in trial preparation for a sexual harassment case pending in Superior Court, Alameda County.
In August 1996, Ms. Mains began working at Shea Law Offices where she worked as a full-time trial lawyer until 2002. During her tenure, Ms. Mains assisted in the prosecution of over one hundred employment cases. Such cases included sex, race, and disability harassment, discrimination and retaliation, assault, false imprisonment, wrongful termination, and defamation, among others. Ms. Mains participated in over fifty mediations and settlements.
She also consulted with business clients regarding all human resources and employment law matters, employment contracts, stock option agreements, wage and hour issues, handbooks, posters, investigations, and mediation.
In 2002, Ms. Mains changed her focus from litigation to a bifurcated practice of estate planning and probate/trust litigation.
