Monica Donaldson Stewart is the managing attorney for the law firm of Donaldson Stewart PC, where she practices in all aspects of family law, including collaborative divorce and family law mediation. She also serves as a Judge Pro Tem for the Maricopa County Superior Court, conducting well over 100 settlement conferences in family law matters since 2007.
Monica received her B.S. degree (summa cum laude, 1993) and her J.D. degree (1997) from Arizona State University. During law school, Monica participated in a semester-long mediation training clinic and in 2009, she completed her first collaborative training with the Collaborative Divorce Institute. Since that time she has trained extensively in both mediation and collaborative divorce practice. Monica believes that divorcing couples and their children benefit when they are given the opportunity to reach settlements without the court’s intervention, and that mediation and the collaborative divorce process offer that opportunity. Monica’s philosophy is that “litigating to win” is not the only way to divorce.
Monica is a member of the Collaborative Professionals of Phoenix (CPP). She served as the president of the East Valley Bar Association (EVBA) in 2008 and 2009, and served as the Treasurer of that organization from 2010 through 2019 and as the Secretary from 2020 through 2021. Monica also served on the State Bar of Arizona Board of Legal Specialization from 2009 to 2020 and served as the Secretary of the Maricopa County Association of Family Mediators (MCAFM) from 2018-2020. In 2012 and 2013, Monica was selected as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star”. Monica has been selected as a Southwest Super Lawyer every year since 2019.