About Frederick "Rick" Montgomery
Rick is an experienced family law attorney with more than 40 years of practice in Santa
Barbara. He specializes in complex marital dissolutions, involving the valuation and division of
businesses and various types of financial interests, with a focus on moderate-to-high-net-worth
individuals and couples. His clients include celebrities, sports figures, business owners, and
prominent local families. He is widely recognized for his legal acumen and expertise.
With a keen understanding of both the legal and inherently personal aspects of family law, Rick
guides his clients with sensitivity, understanding, and the utmost discretion. He maintains clear,
constant and open communication at all times, ensuring that clients fully understand the legal
issues, processes and implications of various strategies, and ultimate results. Rick works
diligently to find the shortest distance from conflict to resolution. He is skilled at resolving
disputes through negotiation, arbitration and mediation, and considers taking a case to court as
the solution of last resort. However, when a fair and just result is unavailable through
negotiation, he embraces the opportunity to aggressively advocate his clients’ interests to the
Court and has earned a reputation as one of the most trusted and skilled trial lawyers in the
civil arena.
In addition to his expertise in family law, Rick has decades of experience in civil litigation,
including real estate, commercial and business transactions, intellectual property, probate,
estates and construction disputes. He brings vast skill and knowledge gleaned from these
diverse practice areas to his family law practice, enabling him to deftly navigate the
multifaceted legal landscape of divorce, forensic accounting and asset valuation and division.
Prior to establishing his personal practice in 2021, Rick was a managing partner and co-founder
of one of Santa Barbara’s most esteemed, full-service law firms, Fell, Marking, Abkin,
Montgomery, Granet & Raney, LLP. A practicing attorney since 1971, Rick has helped
generations of Santa Barbara families and businesses work through their legal challenges. He
holds an AV-preeminent rating with Martindale-Hubbell®, a designation awarded to attorneys
deemed by their peers to have demonstrated the highest level of ethical standards and legal
ability.
While centered in Santa Barbara, Rick works with clients from across the country and has
traveled throughout California, as well as to other states and jurisdictions, when the needs of
his clients require. He is licensed to practice law in California’s state courts and federal courts,
both trial and appellate, and is a member of the State Bar of California and the Santa Barbara
County Bar Association.
Rick received his undergraduate degree in political science from Stanford University in 1967,
and his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, in 1970. At
Hastings, Montgomery was a member of the staff and, thereafter, Managing Editor of the
Hastings Law Journal. He graduated as a member of the Order of the Coif (top 10 percent of
his class) and Thurston Society (top 5 percent).
Rick and his wife, Sherri, have been married for more than 50 years. They have three adult
children and five grandchildren (all boys), all of whom live in Santa Barbara. Two of his children
work in the medical profession. When not practicing law, Rick enjoys snow skiing, water skiing,
spending time with his family and attending all his grandkids’ sporting events.