Raleigh Divorce Law Firm

Focus and practice areas

Raleigh Divorce Law Firm is a family law practice in Raleigh, North Carolina, and it has worked with clients in the Raleigh area and across central North Carolina since 2010. The firm keeps its work inside one field. Every attorney listed on the site handles family law, and the firm does not present itself as a general practice that also takes divorce cases.

The range of matters covers most of what family law involves. The firm handles divorce, alimony, and equitable distribution, which the site also describes as property division. It works on child custody and visitation, child support, and modifications of orders that are already in place. Domestic violence matters are part of the practice as well.

Mediation sits alongside the litigation work. The firm offers family mediation services, so a client who wants to settle outside a courtroom has that route within the same office. In my opinion, a family firm that provides both mediation and courtroom representation gives a client more than one way to resolve the same dispute without changing lawyers partway through.

How the team is built

The firm names six attorneys, and the site gives enough detail on several of them to show how the group has grown over time. Heather W. Forshey is the founding attorney. The firm has carried her practice since 2010, and the newer names on the page show hiring across more than a decade.

Blake H. Larsen joined in June 2015. Before that he worked as an intern attorney at the North Carolina Department of Justice, in the Division of Child Development and Early Education. His work at the firm spans divorce, child custody, child support, spousal support, equitable distribution, and domestic violence. Jennifer Sinclair Simpkins joined in September 2018 and practices family law with the firm.

Two of the more recent additions bring their own backgrounds. Nicolette Ferriolo joined in October 2024 as an associate. She earned a B.A. in Criminology, with minors in Business Administration and Statistics, from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and a Juris Doctor from Elon University School of Law. She interned and worked at a family law firm in New York before her time in Raleigh. Daniel C. O'Malley joined in September 2025 as Senior Litigation Counsel. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Juniata College and a J.D., cum laude, from Duquesne University School of Law, and he has practiced family law since 2010. Elisa Sturkie is also listed among the attorneys.

Behind the lawyers, the firm describes a support structure of paralegals, a firm administrator, and a legal assistant. That mix suggests the office runs case administration in-house rather than leaving it to the attorneys alone.

Credentials that shape the work

Certification carries weight in family law, because board certification in North Carolina requires testing and peer review beyond a license to practice. Two attorneys at the firm hold that credential. Heather W.Forshey is a board-certified family law attorney in North Carolina, and Daniel C.O'Malley is also board-certified in family law.

Forshey also holds two mediation credentials. She is a certified family financial mediator, and she is a North Carolina DRC-certified mediator. The firm offers its family mediation services through her. As a reviewer, I read that as the reason the mediation practice is tied to a specific person with the training behind it, so clients know who handles that side of the work.

Depth for particular situations

Some divorces carry issues that a standard case does not. The firm points to divorcing business owners as one such group. For those clients it addresses asset protection and the division of business interests, which are questions that come up when a marital estate includes a company.

Modifications are another area worth noting. Life changes after a custody or support order is signed, and the firm handles requests to change existing orders. That covers clients who are not starting a new case but need to adjust one that a court already decided.

The firm states it has helped hundreds of clients in divorce and family law matters over the years. That figure comes from the firm itself, so a reader should weigh it as the firm's own account rather than an outside count. Taken with the founding date of 2010, it points to a practice with a settled history in the area.

What the listing shows

The picture from the firm's own pages is a single-field practice with a defined bench.The firm's founding attorney is board certified, a second board-certified attorney joined in 2025, and its associates hold law degrees from Elon and Duquesne. The work runs from contested divorce and custody through mediation and post-order modifications.

For anyone comparing family law offices in the Raleigh area, the useful signals here are concrete. In my opinion, the two board certifications and the in-house mediation credential are the details most worth checking against a client's own needs, since they mark training that not every family firm carries. The firm has practiced family law in central North Carolina since 2010, and its published record centers on that one area of law.