Marianne F. “Mare” Skipper is Of Counsel in the Sacramento office and has extensive experience in various areas of civil and criminal litigation. Mare’s experience includes litigation in insurance defense of primarily construction defect and mesothelioma/asbestos, also representation in criminal, drug, civil harassment, general civil courts, and landlord/tenant litigation actions. Mare also took over a personal injury solo practice for six months when its proprietor was suspended from the practice of law. But in the past 17 years Mare has served as a family law litigator, which included performing as court-appointed minor’s counsel on high conflict custody cases. Mare is also a trained mediator and has mediated family law and general civil matters.
During law school Mare received solicited (they came looking for her) internships: two summers with the Homicide-Sexual Assault Unit with the Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA office; a summer as a criminal defense office in San Jose; and an internship with Mercury Records in New York City, handling the files for world famous actors and musicians, reviewing contract construction and writing cease and desist letters for unauthorized uses of copyrighted materials.
Before law school Mare came out of high school and into the US Army. She served as a Regular Army soldier during the Viet Nam era, was an Army wife, an Army Reservist, and Dept. of Defense Civil Servant working for the Sixth Army HQ at the Presidio of San Francisco and the Army’s recruiting command at Fort Baker, Sausalito, CA, and getting promoted from GS-3-7 all in three years. Mare then used her GI bill to secure a degree in her first love – theater arts. Mare has worked with such distinguished theater companies as the Berkeley (now California) Shakespeare Festival, SF Opera, but firstly, with the Marin Mountain Play since the early 60s. Mare also worked retail for independent booksellers in Larkspur and Berkeley, CA and in NYC working with librarians and teachers.
Daily Mare enjoys her dogs; Bochy the Boxer at age 12(!) and his 11-month-old sidekick, French Bulldog Miss Roma Posey – yes, she is big SF Giants fans. Mare also performs as a supernumerary at the San Francisco Opera. She loves her books which cover every wall in her home.
Mare is also published: Thorstrom v. Thorstrom, 196 Cal.App. 4th, 1406 (2011) re land easement and water use, Mendocino County, CA.
Mare is licensed to practice law in California.