Cordover Teaches Collaborative Law Course in France
Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover just returned from Aix-en-Provence, France, after teaching a Collaborative Law course. Cordover taught the course alongside Tampa psychologist Jeremy S. Gaies. Cordover and Gaies are both lead trainers with Tampa Bay Collaborative Trainers.
The course was hosted by the Institut des Hautes Etudes en Médiation et Négociation (“IHEMN”) as two-days within a broader 200-hour class. Those who wish to become mediators in France must take this (or a similar) 200-hour class. Twenty-six people attended the course, and among them were lawyers, entrepreneurs, police officers, and retired judges.
Curriculum of Collaborative Law Course
The title of the two-day course was “Collaborative Practice in the USA: An Intercultural Advanced Training.” It included the following modules:
- Introduction: What’s wrong with traditional divorce?
- EXERCISE: When you think of Collaborative practice, what do you picture?
- International Models of Collaborative Practice
- DEMONSTRATION: Client-Attorney Intake
- Assembling Collaborative Team
- Role of Neutral Coach
- DEMONSTRATION: Neutral Coach Intake
- The role of the financial professional
- Team Preparation Meeting
- EXERCISE: Vulnerability
- International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
- IACP Ethics and Standards
- Interdisciplinary Team Meetings
- Preparing client for Collaborative team meeting
- Co-parenting and Conflict in Divorce
- DEMONSTRATION: Meeting between Neutral Coach and 2 parents
- Team conflict
- EXERCISE: Team Miscommunication
- EXERCISE: Avoiding Miscommunication
- Debriefs — Giving and receiving feedback
- Role of practice groups
- Enrolling/Creating Collaborative cases
- Closure
About IHEMN
Laurence Baradat, a French lawyer and Director of IHEMN, invited Cordover and Gaies to present. Gaies and Baradat met when Baradat attended a conference of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals in Miami in 2017.
Below is a description of IHEMN from its website (via Google Translate):
The IHEMN was created at the initiative of the Aix-en-Provence Bar in 2014, taking over, extending and exponentiating nearly 15 years of experience and expertise of the Mediation and Training Center AIX-MEDIATION.
A complete course in both mediation and negotiation, 200 hours, validated by a university degree and recognized by national authorities.
The Institute issues the University Diploma ” Mediation-Negotiation “, organized in partnership with the IHEMN, “Institute of Advanced Studies in Mediation and Negotiation” and University of Nîmes.
This diploma is recognized by the FFCM : French Federation of Mediation Centers. It allows the participant to fulfill the conditions to appear on the national directory of mediators published by the FFCM and to apply in the mediation centers adhering to the FFCM.
This diploma is recognized by the CNMA : National Center of Mediators Lawyers, emanation of the CNB. It allows the participant to fulfill the conditions for appearing on the national directory of Mediator’s Lawyers.
Adam B. Cordover is a Collaborative Lawyer and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator. Cordover is a member of the Board of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and Instructor for the Leadership Institute of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals. Cordover is co-author of an American Bar Association book on Collaborative Law and has lead trainings and workshops on alternative dispute resolution throughout the U.S., Canada, Israel, and France.
