Tag Archive for: business valuation

Is Your Florida Law Firm a Marital Asset in Divorce? What Every Law Firm Owner Needs to Know

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As a law firm owner, you’ve built your practice with years of hard work, client relationships, and professional reputation. But when divorce enters the picture, you may be facing questions that strike at the core of everything you’ve created:

  • Is my law firm a marital asset?
  • Could my spouse be entitled to part of its value?
  • Will my partners be dragged into the process?
  • How can I protect my firm and my family?

If you’re navigating divorce in Florida, you need to understand not just the law, but also how to protect your practice and your peace of mind. For many attorneys and professionals, Collaborative Divorce is the answer.

Is a Law Firm a Marital Asset?

In Florida, the answer is often yes—at least in part.

If your law firm was started or grew during the marriage, it likely is considered a marital asset, even if your spouse is not a lawyer, had no direct involvement, and is not listed as an owner. The key factors to consider include:

  • When the firm was founded
  • How much the firm increased in value during the marriage

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How Doctors Divorce in Florida

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How Doctors Divorce in Florida: A Smarter, Private, Team-Based Approach

Divorce is challenging. But for physicians and their spouses, it can come with extra layers—like valuing a medical practice, protecting reputation and sensitive financial data, and balancing a demanding career with family obligations. If you or your spouse is a doctor in Florida, Collaborative Divorce offers a way to handle your separation with professionalism, privacy, and support.

At Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm, we’ve worked with doctors and high-net-worth families across the state. We understand the unique financial and emotional dynamics at play—and how to guide you through them with dignity.

A Private Divorce Process That Respects Your Profession

Collaborative Divorce discussions and decisions take place outside of court. Instead of leaving decisions up to a judge, you and your spouse work with a team of professionals to reach solutions together. This is especially helpful when one or both of you are physicians with complicated schedules, licenses, or business interests at stake.

Just like you may work with other healthcare professionals in a hospital or practice setting—surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, administrators—a Collaborative Divorce uses an interdisciplinary team. Your team likely will include two lawyers (one for each of you), a neutral facilitator (who is a licensed mental health professional to deal with challenging conversations head on and craft a tailored parenting plan), and a neutral financial professional (to efficiently gather mandatory disclosure and help develop bespoke financial options). Each team member brings their own area of expertise to help the family function better and get through the divorce.

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Divorce: What Happens to My Small Business?

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You have worked hard to build your small business in Tampa Bay or Greater Sarasota.  Your dreams and future are intertwined with your company.  But, now, you are facing divorce, and you are worried about how this will affect your small business.  You know there are quite a few issues that you will have to deal with.  Child custody, division of property and debts, and child and spousal support all need to be addressed.

Small Business and Collaborative Divorce

Small Business & Collaborative Divorce

But what happens to your small business?

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Cordover Provides Continuing Education at Tampa Accounting Firm

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Florida’s Department of Business & Professional Regulation Division of Certified Public Accounting requires CPAs to complete a certain amount of continuing education units to remain licensed.

On May 3, 2016, Family Diplomacy managing attorney Adam B. Cordover, alongside collaborative professionals Sonya Johnson and Monica Epstein, provided continuing education units for the accountants of Cohen & Grieb, P.A.  Cordover, Johnson, and Epstein gave a workshop on “Collaborative Family Law: The Smart Alternative to Courtroom Divorce.”

The workshop, held during National Small Business Week, focused on the effects that divorce can have on small businesses, and how collaborative family law can help ameliorate those effects.

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Florida Collaborative Divorce: A Flowchart

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Many people come to my Tampa office because they heard collaborative divorce is private, respectful, conducive to co-parenting, and usually quicker than the traditional courtroom divorce.  But they do not quite understand logistically how the collaborative process works.

The first thing to understand is that each party is represented by his or her own attorney whose sole purpose is to help the parties reach a settlement.  The attorneys are contractually barred from engaging in costly, damaging contested court battles.  If parties want to fight one another in the court system, they must choose different litigation attorneys.

A neutral facilitator, who usually is licensed in a mental health profession, is involved in most collaborative cases.  The facilitator not only helps the parties (and attorneys) focus on the future rather than rehash the arguments of the past, but he or she also teaches the parties communication and dispute resolution techniques that will help them and their families long after the divorce is finalized.

A neutral financial professional is also oftentimes used to efficiently ensure financial transparency between the parties, to develop personally-tailored options for support and the division of assets and debts, and to help the clients budget to give them the best chance for financial security once their divorce is finalized.

Some folks are visual learners, and so my firm has created a flowchart that shows how a collaborative case might proceed.  Please understand that, depending on the facts of your case and the needs of your family, your collaborative divorce process may be customized differently:

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Collaborative Divorce Video: A True Life Story Part 2

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Just as more divorcing spouses in Tampa are seeking an alternative to the usual courtroom battles, the use of the collaborative family law process is growing around the country.  Collaborative Practice California has produced a video which follows an actual couple going through a collaborative divorce.

I previously posted Part 1 of the video.  After the jump, Part 2 of the video shows how the couple handles difficult emotional and financial issues in the collaborative process:

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