Cali Cope-Kasten recently won an appeal at the D.C. Court of Appeals affirming her earlier trial win in Brian Macklin v. Janai Johnson, a complex and contentious divorce and child custody case. The appeal followed a five-day trial in D.C. Superior Court at which Cali and the Wilkinson Stekloff team, representing their client pro bono, won primary physical custody of the parties’ five children, tie-breaking authority in legal custody, and a 40% interest in the parties’ marital home.
The Court’s 32-page opinion affirmed Ms. Johnson’s victory on all issues and gives hope to other women in Ms. Johnson’s position, “hold[ing] as a matter of first impression that substantial homemaker services can indeed entitle a spouse to an equitable interest in real property purchased by the other spouse before the marriage and used as the family home.”
This is the first pro bono victory of 2022 for the Wilkinson Stekloff team and comes on the heels of a very successful year of contributions in 2021, including three major immigration victories, and representing a client in federal criminal tax fraud through membership on the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the District of Maryland.