The Law Firm of Thurman W. Arnold III 

T.W. Arnold attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1974. In 1979 he graduated with Honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He next attended the Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon, where he acted as an editorial staff member for its nationally recognized Environmental Law Journal. He earned his Juris Doctorate in June, 1982. He is currently a part-time Master's Student at Loma Linda University studying Family Systems Theory and Family Life Education.

In November, 1982, Mr. Arnold was admitted to the California Bar and joined his father's Palm Springs legal practice, which was originally established in 1953. Mr. Arnold has tried criminal and numerous civil cases to jury verdict with excellent results, gaining extremely useful trial skills that family law attorneys otherwise don't accumulate.  In August, 2009, he passed the California Family Law Specialist's Examination and is eligible to be recognized as a California Certified Family Law Specialist (CFLS).

Protecting rights and resolving disputes is an Arnold tradition spanning 160 years. Thurman Arnold III is a fifth generation attorney. His grandfather, Thurman Arnold Sr., taught at Yale Law School together with U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas from 1930 to 1938 and authored books on legal realism and economics that remain in print today. In 1938 President Roosevelt appointed him to be the United States Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division for the Department of Justice, and Thurman, Sr., began to dismantle companies that conspired to destroy smaller businesses. In 1943, Thurman Arnold, Sr., accepted a post as a Justice for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He did not relish being a Judge, however, insisting he'd “rather be talking to a bunch of damn fools [judges] than listening to a bunch of damn fools [lawyers]". In 1946 he formed the Washington D.C. Law Firm of Arnold, Porter & Fortas, which became Arnold & Porter when Abe Fortas was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1965. In the 1950's Arnold, Porter and Fortas was one of the few Washington law firms that stood against Senator Joseph McCarthy, representing government employees and private citizens who were prosecuted falsely as alleged communists, pro bono.

The Arnold tradition is one of pride, ethics and dedication to the law and its effects upon people's lives.

Memberships, Licenses, Associations and Public Service

• State Bar of California (Admitted, 1982)
• Central District Court of the United States (Admitted, 1983)
• Family Law Section, State Bar of California 
• Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
• International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP)
• Mediate.com
• International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers (IAHL)
• Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR)
• National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA)
• Cutting Edge Law
• Academy of Family Mediators
• Los Angeles Collaborative Family Law Association (LAFLAC)
• Los Angeles County Bar Association
• National Council on Family Relations (NCFR)
• American Bar Association, Family Law Section
• Riverside County Bar Association
• Desert Bar Association, Family Law Committee
• Desert Bar Association Arbitration Panel/Attorney Client Fee Disputes
• San Bernardino Bar Association
• Past Member of the Warren Slaughter (2000-2002), American Inns of Court
• Past Member of the Lewis & Clark Law School Law Review, The Environmental Law Journal
• Certificates of Appreciation for Services as a Temporary Judge of the Superior Court, Riverside County
• Martindale-Hubbell Client Review Rated Lawyer of Preeminent 4.8 out of 5 as of 28 May 2009. [Date of latest review published on martindale.com and lawyers.com]

Accredited Continuing Education and Specialization Training (2009/2010)  

We are committed to continuing education
and cutting edge family law practices' training.