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).
An adoption client recently reviewed Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm on Avvo.com.
FLORIDA BAR DISCLAIMER: Please note that every case is different, and you may not receive the same or similar results. You can find the review after the jump.
Joryn Jenkins, a Tampa Bay collaborative attorney and multi-book author, has recently published her latest offering, “Open for Business: Changing the Way the World Gets Divorced.” The book focuses on marketing for collaborative professionals.
Joryn, a friend and colleague of Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover, acknowledges Cordover’s impact on the collaborative community along with founders and leaders of the collaborative movement:
On August 24, 2016, Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover spoke in Jacksonville, Florida, on the topic of “Collaborative Divorce for the Middle Class.” The workshop was organized by the Collaborative Family Law Group of Northeast Florida.
Collaborative divorce is a process that is available to help families privately and respectfully reach agreements no matter their income level or size of their estate. Though it has been thought of as alternative dispute resolution for the rich (and it certainly is an effective method for handling complicated cases), more middle class families are learning that it is accessible for them, as well.
If both spouses can hire attorneys, then the question becomes not whether they can afford collaborative practice, but whether they can afford any billable hours being spent on anything other than trying to reach an out-of-court agreement.
More and more people are deciding that they want to avoid the traditional adversarial divorce court system and instead handle their family law matter privately and respectfully via the collaborative process. In collaborative divorce, each spouse receives independent legal advice from his or her own attorney, and the attorneys are retained solely for the purpose of reaching an out-of-court agreement. Oftentimes, experts will be brought in to help with parenting or financial issues.
As collaborative divorce is becoming more popular and since Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the Collaborative Law Process Act in March 2016, more attorneys who are steeped in the old system of divorce court are now advertising that they offer collaborative services. The issue is that the skillset needed to successfully help clients reach dignified agreements in collaborative practice is very different than the skillset needed to be an aggressive trial lawyer.
Below are four questions you should ask any attorney you are interviewing to possibly represent you in the collaborative divorce process.
I recently was reviewed by a former client on the Facebook Page for Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm. The client discusses the need to determine whether the style of an attorney you may use in your divorce is focused on encouraging fighting and earning the billable hour or encouraging collaboration and focusing on your family.
FLORIDA BAR NOTICE: Each case is different, and you may not retain the same or similar results.
For any collaborative professional looking to expense a trip to Vegas, look no further than the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (“IACP”) Networking and Educational Forum, taking place October 27-30, 2016, in Lake Las Vegas, Nevada. And early bird pricing ends August 17, 2016, so you should sign up right away!
The theme is “Welcome to the Future,” and 600 collaborative professionals from 27 countries are expected to attend. There will be 8 in-demand Pre-Forum Institutes led by premier educators in the Collaborative community (including Pauline Tesler and Ron Ousky) as well as 30 intensive and intriguing workshops including 10 three-hour courses.
For this past Independence Day holiday, WWE wrestler John Cena released a public service announcement video celebrating the diversity of the U.S. In the video, Cena can be seen walking around the Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City as he proclaims that we all are America.
While the video is shooting, Cena passes by people of all races, nationalities, creeds, and orientations. At the 1:07 mark, Cena walks by Rabbi Mendy Dubrowski of Chabad Chai South Tampa.
You can find the video after the jump:
I am a collaborative family law attorney. I help families divorce privately and respectfully so that they can end their marriage but also begin their post-marriage life as peacefully as possible.
I am also a trainer. I train attorneys, mental health professionals, and financial professionals how to offer collaborative services to divorcing couples and others handling family law matters.
This past weekend I was in Chicago at a master class led by Forrest (Woody) Mosten on how to train in a way that lets divorce attorneys and others know that they can do well by doing good. Woody is a leading collaborative attorney and mediator, as well as a best-selling author out of Beverly Hills, California. He also happens to be a friend of mine, a mentor, and my co-author for an upcoming American Bar Association book on Building A Successful Collaborative Law Practice.
The class, which included 15 hand-selected attorneys and mental health professionals from around the U.S. and Canada, was described by Canadian social worker and media personality Gary Direnfeld as follows:
Tampa Bay Tomorrow host Corey Dylan recently welcomed “Clair,” a collaborative divorce client, on her show to talk about his experience. Clair was joined on air by his collaborative attorney, Julia Best Chase, along with the collaborative attorney who represented his former wife, Adam B. Cordover.
Clair discussed the reasons he and his wife chose the collaborative process, along with the ability of them to maintain a relationship after the collaborative divorce was finalized.
Tampa Bay Tomorrow is a program of the iHeart Media Group. This episode appeared on several radio stations, including WFLA 970, WFLZ 93.3, WFUS 103.5, WXTB 97.9, WDAE 620, WMTX 100.7, WBTP 95.7, and WHNZ 1250.
You can listen to the radio show after the jump:
Tampa Bay collaborative attorney and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator Adam B. Cordover discusses collaborative divorce in the following short video:
“Most families do not want to be enemies, they do not want to be warring against one another. And so I have been inspired by these families, and I have found that most want a private option,” says Cordover in the video.
