Michèle M. Bissada

Michèle Bissada is the Senior Partner at Flicker, Kerin, Kruger & Bissada, which has offices in Menlo Park and San Ramon, California. Ms. Bissada serves parties throughout San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties, as well as the surrounding regions of Northern California and Southern California. 

Ms. Bissada is a Certified Specialist in Family Law (ACFLS); a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), selective membership available only to those determined to be “leading practitioners” in the Family Law field; a past President of the AAML Northern California Chapter; a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL); and a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), a national organization addressing children’s issues in divorce. 

With 30 years of experience, Ms. Bissada is a seasoned mediator with a prominent litigation background who focuses her practice exclusively on family law.  She is highly committed to her practice and has achieved notable success helping clients resolve even the most difficult family law situations.  She specializes in both complex financial and high conflict custody matters. 

Ms. Bissada is trained in mediation and collaborative law and has been practicing in these alternative dispute resolution areas since 2001.  Ms. Bissada has helped parties resolve their conflicts and reach agreements, without the need for expensive, litigious court battles whenever possible.  She has expertise in navigating and guiding parties through complex private equity cases, including venture capital, hedge fund and cases with illiquid assets that are difficult to value and divide.  

In 2025, Ms. Bissada will devote her entire practice to neutral work.  In addition to Ms. Bissada’s current practice, where she offers services as a Mediator to assist parties reach creative settlements including, Mediation directly with parties; Attorney-Assisted Mediation, where the parties attend with their attorneys present; and Settlement Judging, where she can be more directive about the strengths and weaknesses are in a cases or legal argument; she will add Temporary All-Purpose Private Judging. The parties and their attorneys can retain Ms. Bissada to sit in place of a Judicial Officer to save time and have the benefit of Ms. Bissada’s 30 years of family law expertise.

Since 2008, Ms. Bissada has devoted her time to educating other attorneys, other professionals and the public on the finer points of complex financial and custody issues involved in Family Law.  She has presented at continuing education seminars, including AAML Chapter and National Symposiums, Institutes and Conferences, AFCC California Conferences, California Administrative Office of the Courts Training Seminar and County Psychological Association Seminars; Bar Association Family-Law Continuing Education Presentations in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Alameda Counties; Graduate School Programs Guest Lectures; Private Company Presentations; and Large Law Firms Continuing Education Presentations. To date, Ms. Bissada has been a speaker or presenter close to 50 times.

Highly active in her legal community, Ms. Bissada is a member of several local, state and national bar associations.  She has also co-chaired the AAML Northern California Trial Practicum in 2018, 2021 and 2024 and has also served as a leader in the program.  She served as a co-leader of a 3-year AAML Northern California Chapter Mentor Group for young attorneys and will start another Mentor Group in 2025.  She currently serves on the AAML National Continuing Education Committee and the AAML National Family Law Conference Committee.  Ms. Bissada is also a member of the AMML Foundation Board and serves on several of its board committees.  Ms. Bissada also served as the 2011 President of the San Mateo County Bar Association, after serving for many years as a board member, where she also sat on a number of the organization's committees.  She also currently serves on the membership committee for Collaborative Practice of San Mateo County.

Ms. Bissada is rated by Martindale Hubbell as an AV Preeminent attorney in her field and has been nominated for Best Lawyers® by US News & World Report, as well as Super Lawyers® by Thomson Reuters, which she has earned each year since 2006. She has been included in the Super Lawyers® Top 50 Women since 2019 and as Bay Area Top 100 Attorney since 2020 and the Top 10 since 2021. In 2023, Ms. Bissada also earned the additional distinction of being named “2023 Best Lawyer” for San Jose by Best Lawyers. In 2024, Ms. Bissada ranked #2 of the Top 100 attorneys in all of Northern California by Super Lawyers®.