BIO

Caplan Law Office SC is owned and operated by Attorney Rachel Caplan. Attorney Caplan graduated from the University of Wisconsin law school in 1994, and was admitted to practice in Wisconsin that same year. She started practicing family immediately upon graduation, and was drawn to the process of helping people who were experiencing tremendous personal change. Family law, particularly when working with clients experiencing a divorce, requires much more than a simple analysis of who is entitled to what. Attorney Caplan focuses on making sure that clients understand what is happening to them, understand what different options might be available, and make informed decisions about what options best fit the values and priorities of each client.

Attorney Caplan has experience in a broad range of family issues. Examples of case situations which she has handled include:

• Retrieving, for clients from Europe and Australia, children who had been kidnapped to the United States
• Retaining custody and placement in the United States, for clients whose overseas spouses sought return to other countries
• Divorce property division and maintenance cases including valuations of small business ownership interests and income questions
• Divorce property divisions successfully preserving assets from one spouse’s extended family (giftrd/inherited)
• Divorce property divisions preserving personal injury awards and disability benefits for the injured spouse
• Divorce, custody and placement cases including evaluation of complex mental health, emotional health, and addiction issues
• Divorce support cases including evaluation of incomes and earning capacities
• Placement cases removing children from unsafe situations
• Placement cases involving the potential removal of children by one parent away from the other
• Step-parent adoption and termination of parental rights cases
• Grandparent rights and guardianship cases
• Property division in dissolution of unmarried relationships

Education:

U.W. Law School, J.D;

1991 – 1994

Carleton College, B.A. History;

1986 – 1990

Memberships:

• Wisconsin Bar Association
  • Family Law Section
  • Children’s Law Section
• Dane County Bar Association
  • Courthouse Committee
• Collaborative Family Law Council of Wisconsin, Inc.
• Dane County Collaborative Law Council
• American Bar Association–Family Law Section

Teaching/publications:

• State Bar of Wisconsin
  • GAL Training Basic, April 2004
  • GAL Training Advanced, April 2003
• Author
  • Guardian ad Litem Handbook, 2nd Edition, supplement author Family Court chapter, 2004 and 2007.

Attorney Caplan has also guest lectured in several Wisconsin law school classes on Guardian ad litem practice in family courts.

“Rachel, thank you for helping me through my divorce. I could never have made it without the expert guidance and resources that you provided to me. Your sense of calm, and ability to keep me focused on each decision as it needed to be made, was more important to me than I can say.” -M.L., former client

“Rachel, a word of appreciation. I watch my son today, compared to how he was when I first came to you, and know that his growth and development would have been impossible without your assistance getting him away from the many problems that existed in my ex’s home.” -S.H.; former client