Vesy, Caryl H.

Lisa Marie Vari, founder of the firm, has focused her legal efforts in the family law field for the past eighteen years. From 1996 to the present, Ms. Vari has been in private practice and has operated her family law practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attorney Vari and her staff have represented over 1600 family law clients. While most clients' issues have been settled out-of-court, Ms. Vari has personally appeared in over 600 contested family court issues.

Ms. Vari's clients have included such individuals as professional athletes; an international recording artist; a record producer from California; persons holding professional degrees such as physician's, accountants, and other lawyers; and many business owners. Ms. Vari has also represented hundreds of clients from middle class backgrounds such as hospital employees, police officers, automobile mechanics, and homemakers. Currently, Attorney Vari's practice takes her across the state where she focuses her efforts primarily in the child custody, grandparents' rights, adoption, and surrogacy areas. Ms. Vari also mentors the other members of the firm and oversees all aspects of the firm's family law cases.

Attorney Vari is licensed to practice law in the trial courts in every county in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Vari has also successfully passed the Florida Bar Examination and is also admitted to practice law in the Florida courts system.

Ms. Vari is a member of the Allegheny County Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association, including the family law and military affairs sections of both organizations. Ms. Vari has conducted seminars on family law topics for other attorneys, various police departments, schools, and for the general public. Ms. Vari has been quoted in several newspaper articles, law journals, and during television interviews relating to family law issues. Most recently, Attorney Vari has been selected as a finalist for a reality television show based upon the work and personal lives of family law attorneys. The show is scheduled to air on the Lifetime Network in 2012.

Prior to establishing her private practice, Attorney Vari received valuable experience working with various members of the Pennsylvania judiciary. From 1993 until 1995, she was a Staff Attorney for the Honorable Judge Max Baer when he was the Administrative Judge of Adult and Juvenile Sections of the Family Division, Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. In that capacity, Ms. Vari was able to expand her research and writing skills to the family law area. In this capacity, she was occasionally assigned to act as a Support Hearing Officer as well as a Juvenile Delinquency Hearing Officer. The opportunity to observe and assist Judge Baer with trials and pre-trial conferences provided her with insight to the inner workings of the judiciary. In November of 2003, Judge Max Baer was elected a Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Prior to her employment with Judge Baer, Attorney Vari had the privilege of interning with the late Honorable Justice Ralph Cappy of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court where she spent many hours in the library researching issues and writing draft opinions for Justice Cappy.

At Duquesne Law School, Ms. Vari was a member of the Duquesne University Law Review, an honor bestowed only upon the top twenty percent of each law school class. She also was a research assistant for one of the Law School's professors, won the intraschool appellate tax moot court competition, was a member of the appellate moot court board, acted as a teaching assistant for the legal research and writing class offered to first year law students, was awarded a scholarship during her tenure at Duquesne, and worked in the law library for all four years of her graduate education. Ms. Vari also worked part-time for several Pittsburgh law firms during her graduate education at Duquesne University.

Ms. Vari obtained her undergraduate degree magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh. Ms. Vari was on the Dean's List every semester while attending Pitt and was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society. While studying at the University of Pittsburgh, Ms. Vari served as an academic tutor for several student-athletes through the Athletic Department at Pitt. In fact, two of the fellow students that Ms. Vari tutored went on to professional athletic careers. Ms. Vari attended most of her classes in the evening while working part-time or full-time during the day. Ms. Vari is a 1983 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School. During high school she was known by her maiden name, Lisa Pasqualini. Ms. Vari is divorced from her former husband.

In addition to her legal training, Ms. Vari attended classes and was awarded an IDC Staff Instructor's rating in scuba diving by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). Ms. Vari is also licensed as a CPR instructor for adults and children and was certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).

In her spare time, Attorney Vari volunteers for various organizations that assist active duty military personnel with their legal issues. She also serves on a committee that raises funds to support the pediatric emergency department of a local hospital.