About Us
Deborah H. Wald | Paul W. Thorndal | Kate Reder
Deborah H. Wald 
Deborah H. Wald, Esq. is the founder and senior partner at Wald & Thorndal. Her work has evolved over the past 16 years from a part-time home-based LGBT family formation law practice, to a multi-disciplinary full service family law firm addressing the legal needs of all contemporary families. Ms. Wald's goal is to ensure that all individuals, families and children receive the highest quality legal protections available.
A teacher as well as a lawyer, Ms. Wald uniquely blends a practitioner's experience with national and historical perspectives. She is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, where she teaches an upper level seminar entitled "Topics in Contemporary Family Law," covering a broad range of cutting-edge family law issues. Her law review article, “The Parentage Puzzle,” was published in the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law in 2007; and a second article entitled “Integrated Approaches to Resolving Same-Sex Dissolutions” was published in Conflict Resolution Quarterly in 2009. She regularly provides trainings to attorneys and judges throughout northern California on the in’s and out’s of California parentage law.
Ms. Wald speaks nationally on contemporary family law issues. Recent venues include the California Society for Health Care Attorneys Annual Meeting; the Law and Society Association annual meeting; the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers (ACAL/ACFFL) annual seminar; the American Society of Reproductive Medicine Annual Conference; and the Williams Institute at UCLA.
Ms. Wald also is an experienced criminal defense attorney, focusing primarily on indigent criminal appeals. As a criminal defense lawyer she has devoted her energy to protecting non-citizens who are facing deportation or exclusion from the United States as a result of their contacts with the criminal justice system. She was a founder of Women Defenders, an organization providing professional, technical and social support networks for female criminal defense practitioners; and she worked as a public defender in Alameda County for 5 years.
Ms. Wald is a fellow of the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys, and a former member of ACAL, the Academy of California Adoption Lawyers and Academy of California Family Formation Lawyers. She is the Chair of the National Family Law Advisory Council for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and formerly served on the Board of Directors of Our Family Coalition, the Bay Area's largest LGBT family organization. Ms. Wald is a member of the Family Law Section of the California State Bar Association and the local bar associations of San Francisco and San Mateo counties, as well as BALIF. A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts, Ms. Wald resides in San Francisco with her partner, their two teenage sons, and their two very large — and very cute (except when they are not) — dogs.
Paul W. Thorndal
Paul W. Thorndal is a partner at Wald & Thorndal, and a Certified Family Law Specialist (The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization). A senior litigation attorney with broad experience in both trial and appellate litigation, Mr. Thorndal has successfully represented numerous clients in state and federal courts throughout California. His case, Alexandria S. v. Pacific Fertility Medical Center (1997) 55 Cal.App.4th 110, is one of the few published cases in California addressing the liability of fertility clinics for negligence and breach of contract in the area of assisted reproduction. Mr. Thorndal also has extensive experience handling litigated claims of employment discrimination and professional negligence, and he has tried cases to jury verdict and represented clients before various California Courts of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit.
Mr. Thorndal specializes in the litigation of marital and non-marital disputes, with a particular concern for the dissolution of non-traditional families. His cases include traditional divorces as well as the dissolutions of both registered and non-registered same sex partnerships. In all dissolution cases, he addresses both division of assets and custody disputes as appropriate. Mr. Thorndal's practice also includes assisted reproductive technology (ART) litigation, disputed guardianships, and contested adoptions.
Because litigation can be such an expensive and acrimonious process, Mr. Thorndal believes that it is important to work closely with clients to identify the aspects of their cases which can be settled by agreement, and to fight aggressively for his clients in court only where the parties truly cannot agree. The law firm of Wald & Thorndal provides a variety of legal services related to family law disputes, and Mr. Thorndal's goal is to explore all available alternatives with each client, and then work together to resolve the family law dispute to the client's satisfaction. Mr. Thorndal's unique blend of experience in both family law and civil litigation makes him well suited to handle dissolutions where a significant portion of disputed property was purchased prior to marriage or domestic partner registration.
Paul W. Thorndal is a Certified Family Law Specialist (The State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization), a member of the Family Law Practice Section of the State Bar of California and the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), a member of both the Marin County and San Mateo Bar Associations, as well as the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association and the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. He is a former member of the Alameda Contra Costa Trial Lawyers Association, and the Governing Board Directors for the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. Mr. Thorndal obtained his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He and his husband have lived in San Francisco for many years.
Kate Reder
Kate Reder is an associate at Wald & Thorndal. She has been practicing family law in the Bay Area since 2006, providing comprehensive legal services to both traditional and non-traditional families on all elements of family formation, divorce, and dissolution. Ms. Reder specializes in helping clients naviagate the complexities of custody and parentage cases, always giving highest priority to the best interests of the child.
Ms. Reder received her BA in English/Gay and Lesbian Studies from Wesleyan University, where she was the editor of the university's literary magazine, and an advisor to the president of the university on issues facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgendered, queer and questioning students. She received her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 2006. While at UNC, she was a staff writer for the Journal of Law and Technology and in 2004 published "Ashcroft v. ACLU: Should Congress Try, Try, and Try Again, or Does the International Problem of Regulating Internet Pornography Require an International Solution?", on the regulation of internet pornography. While at UNC Ms. Reder was also a member of the Carolina Public Interest Law Organization, the president of the Feminist Action Initiative, and a research assistant to Professor Daniel Pollitt on issues of civil rights during war time.
Kate is a member of The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) Family Law section, the Queen’s Bench Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Marin County Bar Association. A native San Franciscan, Kate is happy to be home.
