Merritt McKeon

ABOUT MERRITT MCKEON — TRIAL & APPELLATE FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY, ORANGE COUNTY & LOS ANGELES

Merritt McKeon is a Senior Trial Attorney at Reel Fathers Rights APC and one of the most accomplished family law attorneys practicing in Southern California — both in the trial court and on appeal. With over 28 years of experience representing clients in California Family Courts and Courts of Appeal, more than 125 appellate briefs and writ petitions filed, three published appellate decisions, and a portfolio of national publications that includes the first published law review article in the United States on the intersection of child custody and domestic violence, Merritt brings to Reel Fathers Rights a breadth of trial and appellate expertise that is virtually unparalleled in the Orange County and Los Angeles family law bar.

Merritt earned her Juris Doctor from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York (1996), where she received the prestigious Schwab Legal Writing Award from the American Bar Association — one of the most competitive legal writing honors available to law students in the country. During her final year, she served as a visiting student at both the University of San Diego School of Law and California Western School of Law, grounding her California-specific legal education before beginning her practice. She also holds a Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from New York University’s Gallatin School (1994), where she completed a graduate thesis — a novel written in Farsi and translated into English — demonstrating the multilingual analytical depth and intellectual range that she brings to complex legal research and writing. She is based at the firm’s Irvine office, serving fathers across Orange County and Los Angeles County.

ABA SCHWAB LEGAL WRITING AWARD & 28 YEARS OF APPELLATE EXCELLENCE

Merritt McKeon’s recognition with the American Bar Association Schwab Legal Writing Award in 1995 is a foundational credential that reflects the same skill that has produced over 125 appellate briefs and writ petitions across her career. Appellate practice is a discipline unto itself — demanding precision of legal argument, command of the evidentiary record, mastery of California’s procedural rules on appeal, and the ability to craft written advocacy that can persuade appellate justices who were not present for the trial court proceedings. Merritt has spent 28-plus years developing and exercising those skills exclusively in the family law context.

As the former Chair of the Appellate Section of the Orange County Bar Association (2012–13) — and Program Chair of the same section in 2011–12, where she created programming on oral arguments, bonds on appeal, and federal court presentations — Merritt is not merely a practitioner in Orange County appellate law; she has been a leader in shaping how Orange County family law attorneys understand and approach appellate practice. For fathers at Reel Fathers Rights whose cases require appeal, or whose trial court proceedings can be positioned from the outset to preserve the strongest possible appellate record, Merritt’s leadership-level expertise is a defining asset.

INTERNATIONAL CHILD ABDUCTION & HAGUE CONVENTION CASES

Merritt McKeon’s experience in international child abduction cases under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is among the most significant and specialized credentials she brings to Reel Fathers Rights. Her published appellate decision in Noergaard v. Noergaard (2015) 197 Cal.Rptr.3d 546 is a landmark California case establishing that in international child abduction proceedings where a child faces a “grave risk” of harm if returned to the home country, the trial court must conduct a fair hearing considering all relevant evidence of abuse — and that where the status quo in the home country was abusive, speedy return is not the governing goal in California proceedings.

This published decision — law that now governs Hague Convention proceedings in California courts — reflects Merritt’s command of both the substantive international law and the procedural architecture of international custody proceedings. Hague Convention cases arise with frequency in Southern California’s internationally diverse communities, and the stakes in these cases — a child’s location, safety, and legal jurisdiction — are among the highest in all of family law. Merritt’s published expertise, validated at the appellate level, means she approaches these cases not as a generalist learning the area but as an attorney whose work has shaped California law in it.

Her international family law experience also includes a 2000 case in which she represented a mother in a custody writ involving a gag order, successfully appearing before the Australian media as the trial court refashioned the order after she demonstrated it violated due process — and a 2000 collaboration with attorney Gloria Allred in Rome, Italy, assisting with an appeal involving the return to the United States of a child whose American mother had been murdered. These international cases span jurisdictions, legal systems, and extraordinary factual circumstances — exactly the kind of high-stakes complexity that Merritt handles with demonstrated command.

PUBLISHED APPELLATE DECISIONS

Merritt McKeon has three published appellate decisions in California — a distinction that sets her apart from the vast majority of family law appellate practitioners. Published decisions are not merely wins; they are rulings that California appellate courts have deemed significant enough to contribute to the permanent body of California law. Every California attorney and judge in the relevant area is bound by and guided by published decisions. Merritt’s three published opinions are:

Noergaard v. Noergaard (2015) 197 Cal.Rptr.3d 546 — the landmark international child abduction decision establishing fair hearing requirements and limiting the “speedy return” principle where the home country situation was abusive. Plummer v. Day Eisenberg (2010) Cal.App.4th 38 — addressing attorney liens and the doctrine of quantum meruit. Wilson v. Shea (2001) 104 Cal.Rptr.2d 880 — addressing child support and travel credits. Together, these three published decisions span family law, attorney fees, and international child abduction law — reflecting the breadth of Merritt’s appellate practice and the consistent quality of the legal arguments she has presented to California’s Courts of Appeal over nearly three decades.

NATIONAL PUBLICATIONS: AUTHOR OF THE FIRST U.S. LAW REVIEW ARTICLE ON CUSTODY & DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Merritt McKeon’s publication record is exceptional by any measure. In 1998, she authored “The Impact of Domestic Violence on Child Custody Determination in California: Who Will Understand?” — published in the Whittier Law Review (19 Whittier L. Rev. 459, Spring 1998) — which was the first published law review article in the United States to address the intersection of child custody determinations and domestic violence. That article, published just two years into her career, established Merritt as a national authority on an issue that would come to define a generation of family law reform.

Her subsequent publications include two chapters in the Matthew Bender Child Custody and Visitation Guide for 50 States — covering Relocation Cases (2002) and Domestic Violence, Domestic Abuse, and Child Custody (2003) — making her a contributing authority to one of the most widely used family law reference works in the country. She also contributed to the Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB) publication Domestic Violence Remedies in California Family Law Cases (2008), published a Domestic Violence Primer in the Orange County Lawyer Magazine (2002), and co-authored Stop Domestic Violence: An Action Plan for Saving Lives (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1997) — a mainstream press publication that brought her expertise on domestic violence and child safety to a national audience.

MEDIA RECOGNITION & NATIONAL TELEVISION APPEARANCES

Merritt McKeon’s legal expertise has been recognized not only within the legal community but by national media. In 1997, she appeared as a guest on Larry King Live, Burden of Proof, MSNBC, and Good Morning America — four of the most prominent national television programs of that era — discussing domestic violence, custody, and child welfare issues. She appeared on the 700 Club in 2007. These national media appearances, combined with her international courtroom appearances in Australia and Italy, reflect a career spent operating at the highest levels of family law visibility and complexity.

Her National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Pro Bono Awards — received in 1997, 1999, 2007, 2008, and 2009 — reflect five separate recognitions spanning more than a decade for her pro bono work on behalf of missing children and vulnerable families. She also received the National Litigation Academy Honor Corps 450 Award in 2009 for pro bono work on behalf of indigent appellants and family and guardianship cases — an honor reflecting her sustained commitment to access to justice throughout her career.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE & LEGAL AID LEADERSHIP

Merritt’s commitment to the legal profession extends to legal education and community service. She served as an Adjunct Law Professor at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, teaching Domestic Violence and Family Law (1997), and as an Adjunct Law Professor at Trinity Law School in Santa Ana, teaching Civil Procedure and Family Law (2001–2002). Teaching law at the adjunct level — particularly in the complex intersection of domestic violence and family law — requires the ability to synthesize an enormous body of law and practice into accessible, rigorous instruction. That capacity for clear, organized legal communication is the same skill that makes an effective appellate brief writer and trial court advocate.

Merritt has also led two nonprofit legal aid organizations: she founded and served as head lawyer of the Domestic Law Project, a nonprofit law firm in Newport Beach (2002–2004) that represented indigent and abused clients in family court and filed three writ petitions for clients, and she served as head attorney of the Christian Legal Aid Office in Orange County (2006–2008), representing indigent clients in urgent family and probate guardianship matters and supervising volunteer attorneys. These leadership roles reflect a career-long commitment to access to justice — and a depth of practical family law experience across the full range of client circumstances.

ORANGE COUNTY & LOS ANGELES FAMILY COURTHOUSES

Merritt McKeon is based at Reel Fathers Rights APC’s Irvine office and serves fathers across Orange County and Los Angeles County in both trial and appellate proceedings. Her appellate practice focuses on the Fourth District Court of Appeal (which covers Orange County and Riverside County cases) and the Second District Court of Appeal (which covers Los Angeles County cases) — the two appellate districts most relevant to Southern California family law matters.

For trial-level family court matters, she appears before the Lamoreaux Justice Center at 341 The City Drive South in Orange — the primary Orange County family law venue — as well as the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111 North Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles, the Long Beach Courthouse at 415 West Ocean Boulevard, and the Pomona Courthouse South at 400 Civic Center Plaza serving the eastern San Gabriel Valley. For fathers in Orange County and Los Angeles County whose cases require experienced trial court representation, appellate advocacy, writ petitions, or international Hague Convention proceedings, Merritt McKeon at Reel Fathers Rights APC offers an extraordinary combination of trial skill and appellate excellence built across nearly three decades of practice. Contact us at 951-339-3826.