Zelikha J. Dost
Managing Partner
Litigation is a last resort — not because it's hard, but because families deserve better than two years in court.
Zelikha's practice rests on a conviction she holds without apology: most family disputes should be resolved without a courtroom. The families who resolve them early, on real terms, are almost always better off for it.
What makes that possible is not eagerness to compromise but rather preparation. A case built completely enough that the other side can see clearly where it leads.
Zelikha has won complex trials and evidentiary hearings in high-conflict divorce, child custody, domestic violence cases and support matters. That courtroom capacity is precisely what allows her to settle cases early and on favorable terms. Opposing counsel negotiates differently when the attorney across the table is genuinely prepared to try the matter. Clients benefit twice: in the settlement terms they reach, and in the relationships and resources they preserve by not spending years in litigation.
Zelikha didn't stumble into family law. She chose it deliberately during law school, drawn by the weight of what was at stake — parents, children, and families navigating some of the hardest moments of their lives. She has practiced exclusively in this area since earning her law degree in 2015.
Before law school, Zelikha taught in the San Mateo and Sequoia Union High School Districts. She found the work meaningful but wanted to advocate for families in conflict directly — to be the person in the room who could actually change the outcome. That instinct brought her to family law, and that background still shows in how she practices.
She is remarkably effective at explaining complicated financial and legal issues — business valuation, equity compensation, support calculations, the mechanics of a property settlement — to clients who are under stress and absorbing unfamiliar information at a difficult moment. And she understands, in a way that is more than theoretical, what children experience when a family restructures around them.
She has completed advanced mediation and conflict resolution programs and has worked with private judges across both mediation and all-purpose judicial roles. This experience gives her a clear view of how decision-makers assess cases, and allows her to prepare and educate clients accordingly. She brings a negotiator's discipline to matters that can be resolved by agreement, and a litigator's readiness to those that cannot.
Representative Matters
• International and domestic child custody move-aways involving newborns, children, and adolescents, and complex visitation arrangements.
• Child support and spousal support cases involving senior corporate executives, technology entrepreneurs, and high-net-worth individuals.
• Characterization and valuation of businesses in the fields of corporate staffing, health care, professional services, and technology.
• Characterization and division of restricted stock units and other forms of stock options and equity compensation.
• Interpretation and enforcement of foreign and domestic prenuptial agreements governing separate and community property division and spousal support.
• Coordination of divorce with complex estate planning and tax considerations, working with outside experts in forensic accounting, trust planning, and taxation.
• Mediation on behalf of high-asset clients in the corporate and technology sectors.
• Restraining order cases involving allegations of domestic violence and abuse, parental misconduct, and substance abuse.
Her practice covers mediation, high-conflict divorce, child custody, child support, spousal support, business valuation, domestic violence and restraining orders.
Credentials
Zelikha received her Juris Doctor with Honors and a Family Law Specialization Certificate from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2015. She was a member of the Honors Lawyering Program and received the Witkin Award and CALI Award in Community Property and a CALI Award in Family Law.
In the fall of 2013, she clerked for Judge Michael I. Begert at the Unified Family Court in San Francisco.
She holds a Master's in Education and a Teaching Credential from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Davis.
Bar Membership
State Bar of California, 2015.
Professional Activities
Member, California Young Lawyers Association.
Education
Juris Doctor with Honors, Golden Gate University School of Law, 2015 (Family Law Specialization Certificate). Master's in Education and Teaching Credential, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2009. Bachelor of Science, University of California, Davis, 2008.