Attorney

Teresa M. Harkins La Vita is a partner and founder of the La Vita Family Law and Mediation located at 1 Webb Street in Danvers, Massachusetts.    Attorney La Vita focuses her practice in the area of family law, assisting clients throughout Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties with a variety of family law matters including adoptions, Premarital Agreements, divorce, child support, alimony, child custody, parenting plans, paternity, contempt actions and modification actions.  Attorney La Vita serves her family law clients in litigation and is trained as both a collaborative practitioner and mediator. She is also certified to represent clients in Limited Assistance Representation agreements and is trained as a Category F Guardian ad Litem for family law matters.   

Prior to co-founding La Vita Family Law and Mediation (formerly the La Vita Law Center) in 2010, Attorney La Vita was an associate at a small family law firm, where she concentrated in divorce and other family law matters. Attorney La Vita’s legal experience also includes serving for two years as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Justices of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court, where she worked closely with the Justices to thoroughly analyze legal issues and assist with family and probate cases.  Attorney La Vita is an honors graduate of New England Law | Boston, where she earned multiple scholastic achievement awards.  In 2016 Attorney La Vita was named the Lawyer of the Year by the North Shore Women Lawyers Association for her work on Partanen v. Gallagher, 457 Mass. 632 (2016) (the SJC concluded that a non-biological parent may be considered a "parent" under G.L.c. 209C, sec. 6(a)(4) , where the children were born into a relationship and the non-biological parent held the children out as her own).   

In addition to her practice, Attorney La Vita serves the Massachusetts Juvenile Court Department as a Care & Protection Court Investigator.  She taught Legal Research & Writing at New England Law | Boston from 2010 – 2016. Attorney La Vita has published numerous articles for the LexisNexis Emerging Issues Analysis division.    

Attorney La Vita is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts.  She is a past co-chair of the Women’s Bar Association – North of Boston Committee.  Attorney La Vita is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, Essex County Bar Association, Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation, and Massachusetts Association of Guardians ad Litem.  Attorney La Vita was selected as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers each year from 2013 - 2017 and as a Super Lawyer in 2024.

Attorney La Vita can be reached at 978-652-9287 or tlavita@lavitalaw.com.