DC and MD Matrimonial Lawyer Focusing on Custody, Divorce and Prenups
For over 20 years, Regina A. DeMeo has been helping families in MD and DC with custody and divorce issues either through mediation, litigation or advocacy. She is an alumna of Georgetown University and GW University Law School, who is nationally recognized as a top matrimonial attorney. She is frequently quoted in the media for her ideas to promote healthier relationships and featured in the Washington Post, ABA Journal and Bethesda Magazine for her care and commitment to her clients. As a legal commentator, she has appeared on Washington Post Express Facebook Live, ABC tv, Good Morning America, MMCTV, YouTube and Sirius XM, and has been quoted in various magazines, books and journals across the country.
Regina offers appointments in Maryland and DC. Her areas of practice include:
Latest Blog Posts by GenXSmartie
Marriage- What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Love does not conquer all, I'm sorry to say. Every single one of my divorce clients started out in love when they first said their vows. But staying in sync with your partner is not easy, especially over the years as you weather life's storms that often include illness, financial loss, family drama, career setbacks, or quite simply a change of heart as to your priorities. Marriage is about commitment-- and it takes two individuals fully invested in making their partnership work, willing to compromise, to see things from the other person's perspective, to continually show empathy and respect to one another, even in times of conflict. I am often asked what I believe is the #1 reason people divorce, and for the past few years I've consistently provided the same answer: Narcissism. If one person is hell-bent on doing whatever s/he wishes, regardless of what the other person may think or feel, then there is no way that marriage will survive. Tina Turner said it best with these lyrics: What's love got to do, got to do with it What's love but a second hand emotion What's love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? There is only so much heart break that a person can withstand. When [...]
In Honor Of No Immigrants Day
I had court today, so I could not just take the day off, but if you saw me reading the Express on the Metro when it showed that Jose Andres (who is from my father's country) was closing some of his restaurants in the area today, you would have seen the biggest grin on my face-- it went from ear to ear. After court, as I ran some errands, I walked by a McDonald's that was closed today. I was so proud, and stopped to take a picture so I could share it on social media. In the few minutes that I was there doing this, several people came up to me utterly confused, and they asked me "why is McDonald's closed-- I have never seen this." I politely explained to everyone that asked that today was No Immigrants Day, and that many restaurants were either closed or working short-staffed while immigrants basically stayed home in order to raise awareness of how much we need them. It dawned on me that I should call my father, who imports food from Spain and distributes it to the local restaurants in Miami, which is where he has lived the last 50 years. When I asked him if he went to work today, he responded, "of course, why?" I then explained to him [...]
Can You Reclaim Valentine’s Day As Your Own?
Valentine's Day is right around the corner, and chances are that if you're single, you may be dreading this Hallmark holiday-- but what if you could reclaim this day as your own? The reality is that about 20% of the U.S. population will never marry, and of the 80% that do half will get divorced. Among the 40% that remain married, it is believed that only half of those are happily married, which means you actually only have a 20% chance of living in marital bliss. I don't know about you, but I think those odds suck. More importantly, these numbers emphasize the importance of finding your own happiness. So how does this relate to V-Day? Well, after my divorce a decade ago, I threw an anti-Valentine's Day party, which included a heart-shaped princess piñata that all my single friends enjoyed bashing while we sipped on wine and shared our dating horror stories. No doubt it was a fun evening, but I believe that unleashed some really bad karma that led to a disastrous year of dating for me. As a result, the following year, and each year thereafter, I decided to reclaim Valentine's Day as my own holiday of love-- not romantic love, which I already explained has about a 20% chance of succeeding, but love in a much [...]
Reflections After The Women’s March
Title IX was passed in 1972, the year that I was born. A year later, Roe v. Wade lifted the ban on abortions in the U.S. 3 years later, Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 at the Olympics in the history of gymnastics and captured the hearts of fans around the world. Then, in 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female Supreme Court Justice. It is no wonder then, that I, along with all my female peers, grew up believing we can do anything we want to do, and be anything we want to be. After I graduated college, I took a year off before law school and worked as a paralegal at White & Case in New York. Then, I returned to DC to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer, where I found my class was about 50% men, 50% women. This fit with my belief that we are all equals-- but what I did not realize at the time, and only learned much, much later is that by the time it comes to becoming a partner at a firm, less than 16% will be women, and less than 5% will be minorities. Right before I graduated law school in 1998, I was clerking at a firm in downtown DC. The senior [...]