back to Screen-Friendly page

Voluntary Early Mediation (VEM) Program

Choosing a Mediator

The parties agree that BASF will administer the case if this mediator is chosen. File the Mediation Consent form (43KB PDF) to initiate the process.


Paula Lawhon

Mediation & Law Office of Paula M. Lawhon


Areas of Experience: Family Law; Mediation of Pre-marital and Post-Marital Agreements; Divorce Mediation, including Separation, Domestic Partnerships, Co-Habitation, Property Division and Property Agreements, Child Custody and Parenting Plans, Child Support and Spousal Support. 


Paula Lawhon is a Family Law and Divorce Attorney/Mediator in San Francisco and has been practicing for 9 years. She has over 130 hours of mediation skills training and has mediated over 100 disputes and agreements.

Lawhon is trusted by both represented and unrepresented parties to mediate their family law cases and to create their important property agreements in a fair and balanced manner. Lawhon works with divorcing couples in the privacy of her own conference rooms to initiate the legal divorce proceedings, to help the parties reach agreements on often-complex financial and personal issues and to finalize the divorce without anyone going to court.

Lawhon works with parties to reduce costs and save time and emotional resources in resolving their cases efficiently and professionally. She is a compassionate and knowledgeable mediator who is sensitive to the complex emotions experienced by families going through divorce as well as couples who are starting their life together or are creating property agreements together.

Lawhon has served as an Arbitrator, Mediator and Settlement Conference Judge and Master in a broad range of cases. Lawhon is on the Board of Directors of Community Boards, a community-based mediation program in San Francisco , and volunteers as a mediator for Community Boards and OCC.

Prior to her Family Law practice, Lawhon worked as an attorney in the areas of Civil Litigation and Employment Law, and as a Private Investigator prior to becoming an attorney.

Hourly Rate: $350