The traditional divorce model pits husband versus wife, mother versus father. Collaborative Law is a refreshing team-oriented alternative. Each client retains a separate attorney whose job is to counsel the client and help resolve disputes. The attorneys work together to help both clients meet their needs. Open communication is advanced by a trained facilitator, while support and property options are developed by a neutral financial professional. The clients, attorneys, and other team members agree beforehand that the matter will not be brought into the court system until a full agreement is reached.
The Collaborative Process allows for flexible, creative solutions to a family law matter. The team explores options that look beyond a legal framework by incorporating the skills and expertise of the facilitator and financial professional. Clients are encouraged to focus on the best interests of their family, rather than rigid negotiation positions, to reach their goals. In the unlikely event that a settlement is not reached, the Collaborative attorneys withdraw and litigation lawyers may be retained. The knowledge that the Collaborative attorneys cannot bring the case in front of a judge further permits the parties to speak openly about potential settlement options (and frees attorneys from conducting exhaustive, costly opposition research).
We at Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm, are grateful for the opportunity to help our clients through difficult times. One such client, from a collaborative family law matter, was kind enough to leave a review on Avvo.com.
• Do you want more collaborative cases?
• Are you looking to conduct more mediations?
• Can you imagine a day where your peacemaking practice is so profitable that you no longer need to take litigation matters?
With Forrest Mosten and
Guest Trainer, Adam B. Cordover of Tampa, FL
San Diego, California
September 27-28, 2019
Tuition Discounts for:
• Early Bird Registration
• IACP Membership
• 3 or More Participants from same Collaborative Practice Group
This workshop will provide you with the real-world tools and ideas that can help you transform your practice. Now is the time to take the future of your career in your own hands and learn how you can become a full-time peacemaker.
Using concepts and practice forms from their 2018 ABA Book, Building a Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice and Woody’s classics, Mediation Career Guide and Collaborative Divorce Handbook, Adam and Woody will take you step by step how to build and grow your practice, including:
• Standing Out In A Crowded Marketplace
• Tailoring Models of Collaborative Practice to Meet a Families’ Needs
• Utilizing Interdisciplinary Models of Mediation
• Creating a Menu of Peacemaking Services
• Exploring New Opportunities in Preventative Dispute Resolution
• Much Much More
This course has been adopted by both the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and the ABA and has been highly praised by past participants when it was held in Seattle (twice with Kevin Scudder), Chicago (3 times with Carl Michael Rossi), Tampa (with Adam Cordover) Coral Gables (with Enid Miller Ponn), New York City (with Ken Neumann), Los Angeles, Minneapolis (With Ron Ousky), Boston (with David Hoffman), Toronto, Marin County (with Steve Rosenberg) and other venues.
Mosten Mediation and Collaborative Training is an Approved CLE Provider for the California State Bar (including Family Law Specialization) and CAMFT for Marriage and Child Therapists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers.
Woody’s Minneapolis training on Getting More Cases has truly set the Iowa Collaborative practice group on fire — several of us have found all sorts of magical things zhappening since we’ve been back in Des Moines. It’s amazing what happens when you begin to think more creatively about your practice and how to use collaborative law skills to better serve your clients. I’ve attended a lot of trainings in my career and his is top notch. I highly recommend Woody’s training.
Kimberly Graham, Collaborative Attorney and Mediator
West Des Moines, IA
www.GrahamLawCollaborative.com
Forrest (Woody) Mosten is in collaborative law and mediation practice with offices in San Diego and Los Angeles. He specializes in matters involving complex legal and financial issues and high conflict parties. Woody is the author of Building A Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice (ABA, 2018, with Adam B. Cordover), Unbundled Legal Services (ABA, 2017, with Elizabeth Potter Scully), Collaborative Divorce Handbook (Jossey-Bass, 2010), The Complete Guide to Mediation, 2nd Edition (ABA, 2015 with Elizabeth Potter Scully) and Mediation Career Guide Jossey-Bass, 2001).
Adam B. Cordover is a member of the Board of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and co-chair and instructor of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals Leadership Institute. He is co-author with Forrest “Woody” Mosten of Building A Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice, published by the American Bar Association in 2018. In 2015, Adam stopped taking litigation cases and now practices exclusively in out-of-court dispute resolution.
For questions about course content or nearby hotels, click the button below or call (310) 721-4291.
The Jewish Press of Tampa, in its September 21, 2018 edition, spotlighted Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm and its managing attorney, Adam B. Cordover. Below you will find the spotlight:
Name of Business: Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm
Location: 412 E. Madison St., Suite 824, Tampa
Ownership: Adam B. Cordover, graduate of Jewish Leadership Training Institute 2010
Q What services do you offer?
A Collaborative Divorce and Family Law, Mediation, Unbundled Legal Services, Adoptions, Name Changes
Q What inspires your work and sets you apart from everyone else?
A My firm focuses on helping people through difficult times in the least painful way possible. That is why we specialize in collaborative family law, where the children are the top priority and where respect and privacy are fostered.
Collaborative family law attorney and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator Adam B. Cordover received the 2018 Avvo Client Choice Award. The Award is provided to attorneys who receive five or more 4+ Stars in a calendar year (all Adam’s reviews have been five out of five stars).
Below are the reviews in 2018 that lead to the award:
Adam was and still has been a tremendous resource to me with my tumultuous divorce process. He was honest and fair – he put me in my place when I got too riled up during the process and provided me a real picture of what needed to be done – and what the potential outcomes could be.
Adam was not an attorney that billed crazy hours and prolonged the case – he was steadfast and eager to help me – he did not ever drag things out like a lot of attorneys do just for some extra billing.
My case ended – and even after we had completed our business relationship, Adam continues to demonstrate his compassion towards me and my challenges with living as a divorced single father – not for the money – he seems to do it because he has taken ownership of my post-divorce challenges at times.
I highly recommend anyone going through a divorce to speak to Adam first about a collaborative approach to marriage termination – as well as all family legal matters.
While no one wants to face the challenges or realities that come with divorce, Adam will show you the truth before anyone else knows it – and help you plan for your future.
Posted by Kenneth on Avvo.
Five out of five stars.
Today, the American Bar Association releases “Building A Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice,” edited by Forrest (Woody) Mosten and Adam B. Cordover. The book includes experts from around the field in collaborative practice and out-of-court dispute resolution.
Below is a list of the chapters and contributing authors:
Foreword: Nancy Cameron
Prologue: Making Collaborative and Non-Court Practice Your Day Job – Forrest S. Mosten & Adam B. Cordover
Chapter 1: Lawyers as Peacemakers. Really?!? Yes, Really. – David Hoffman
Chapter 2: How Collaborative Practice Will Improve Your Profitability – Robert Merlin
Chapter 3: Redefining Your Practice Signature and Creating a Profitable Peacemaking Practice – Kevin Scudder
Chapter 4: How Many Hats Can You Wear? Assessing If You Can Be a Collaborative Professional and Still Litigate – Carl Michael Rossi
Chapter 5: Being A Client Leader: The Art of Gaining New Collaborative Clients – Rich Grof
Chapter 6: Effectively Marketing Your Collaborative Practice – Gary Direnfeld
Chapter 7: Creating Collaborative Office Space – Zanita Zacks-Gabriel
Chapter 8: Integrating Technology into Your Collaborative Practice – Brian Galbraith
Chapter 9: Getting Buy-In for a Collaborative Approach from the Other Spouse and Attorney – Enid Miller Ponn
Chapter 10: The First Client Meeting: Gateway to a Collaborative Case – Bev Churchill
Building A Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice by Forrest S. Mosten and Adam B. Cordover is now available for pre-order on the American Bar Association website. The book brings together experts in the field of collaborative practice to help professionals learn to make a living while helping families restructure in a better way.
Reviews have already started coming in:
I personally believe Woody Mosten and Adam Cordover have done the Collaborative Practice Community a tremendous service by bringing together this group of respected Collaborative Practitioners to share their experience and expertise. They gathered these voices to speak to the Collaborative Practice and peacemaking world, in an attempt to answer the call of the Community for more Collaborative cases and for a way to stop going to court forever. For those who want to devote their life and practice to changing how families resolve their disputes and to help them move forward in peace, this is the book for you.
Christopher M. Farish, Collaborative Lawyer
Dallas, Texas
President of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
It is almost here! Forrest “Woody” Mosten and Adam B. Cordover’s “Building A Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice,” a compendium of practical tools from experts in the field, will be published by the American Bar Association Family Law Section in August 2018.
Forrest S. Mosten & Adam B. Cordover
This has been a nearly 3-year project that was sparked when Adam attended a Tampa course taught by Woody in 2015 on “How to Build a Profitable and Satisfying Collaborative and Mediation Practice.” Woody’s course provided Adam with the tools to create an exclusively private dispute resolution, non-litigation family law practice. This allowed Adam not only to feel confident in offering clients a better way through divorce and other family law issues, but also gave him the ability to chart his own path without the high stress associated with family law court battles.
It is with that in mind that Woody and Adam have gathered experienced practitioners to provide practical tools on how professionals can make collaborative practice and peacemaking work their day job.
Below is the Table of Contents from the book:
We know that most divorcing spouses are better off using the collaborative process. Still, you may not have as many collaborative cases as you want. What challenges have you encountered when trying to enroll a collaborative family law case?
Does your heart pound when explaining the disqualification clause? Are you worried about how to discuss costs? Can you get your client to yes, but struggle to bring the other spouse on board?
The South Palm Beach Collaborative Practice Group invites attorneys, mental health professionals, and financial professionals to an Advanced Collaborative Training on It All Starts In The Initial Client Meeting – Enrolling the Collaborative Case. The training will be taught by Adam B. Cordover, Esq., Jeremy S. Gaies, Psy.D., Barbara E. Kelly, Ph.D., and J. David Harper, CPA of the Tampa Bay Collaborative Trainers. It takes place March 16, 2018, at the Boca Grove Golf & Tennis Club, 21351 Whitaker Dr., Boca Raton, Florida 33433.
In this full day intensive advanced collaborative family law training, you will learn the keys to having a successful initial client meeting, including the following:
It has been less than one year since Florida’s Collaborative Law Process Act has gone into effect. Now is a perfect time to take a Two-Day Introductory Interdisciplinary Tampa Collaborative Training!
Next Generation Divorce and Tampa Bay Academy of Collaborative Professionals are co-sponsoring the training to teach more professionals how to help families peacefully and privately to resolve their disputes. The training will be conducted by the Tampa Bay Collaborative Trainers.
When:
As we enter the new year, sometimes it is helpful to take a look back. Below are the top 20 most viewed blog posts here at FamilyDiplomacy.com (Click on the title to visit the blog post):
On June 15, 2017, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 590 (“SB 590”) into law. SB 590 directs the Department of Revenue to provide parents with a proposed Standard Parenting Time Plan in Title IV-D child support cases. The bill also authorizes the Department of Revenue to establish agreed-upon parenting plans. Further, SB 590 waives court costs for families in a Title IV-D case who cannot agree on a parenting plan and are asking the courts to establish a plan.
Cynthia Schwarzkopf, daughter of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr, discusses how she and her husband utilized the collaborative family law process to dissolve her marriage in a video released by the Tampa Bay Collaborative Divorce Group.
Good, you have decided that if you are going to divorce, you are going to do it collaboratively. This means that you and your spouse will each have your own attorneys, but the attorneys are not there to fight. You hire the attorneys to help reach an out-of-court agreement so you can move on with your lives.
But you may also know that either spouse at any time can decide they no longer want to participate in the collaborative divorce, causing it to terminate. All professionals are automatically fired. The spouses then proceed as “opposing parties” in the traditional divorce court route.
The possibility of losing your attorney is a scary notion. So, you may be wondering to yourself, how often do collaborative divorces terminate?
On May 18, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court published an opinion approving collaborative law rules. The collaborative law rules are the last step necessary before Florida’s Collaborative Law Process Act goes into effect.
The opinion approves Rule Regulating the Florida Bar 4-1.19 and Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.745.
If you are getting divorced, you want to move forward as peacefully, quickly, and cost-effectively as possible. And so you should learn about collaborative mediation.
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