Divorce Law Journal

Ethical Considerations In Collaborative Law Practice

The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility issued formal opinion 07-447 on August 9, 2007. It views collaborative practice as akin to a limited engagement with the client. The opinion reminds us that the attorneys' professional obligations of due diligence remain. Practice tip: Don’t use your standard employment contract for a collaborative case. Rather, draft a limited engagement agreement. Download aba_collab_ethics_opinion.pdf

Colorado Collaborative Ethics Opinion - IACP Responds

The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals has released this response to the recent Colorado Ethics Opinion prohibiting the use of four-way agreements in collaborative practice. Thanks to the Family Law News Blog for this update.

ABA Creates Collaborative Law Committee

From the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals:

On February 10, 2007, the Council of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution voted to create a Collaborative Law Committee. The purpose of the Committee is to encourage the use of Collaborative Law, to monitor and advise the Council about CL developments such as the CL Drafting Committee created by National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, the emerging set of state ethical opinions on CL, and legislation around the country, and to help the Section build bridges to such organizations as the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and to other Sections of the ABA.

"Collaboration with IACP is an important priority for the Committee," said David Hoffman, who chairs the Committee. "Our goal is to be supportive of IACP's efforts, and the efforts of local, regional, and international CL groups, in the field of Collaborative Law."

One of the Committee's objectives will be to focus on the areas outside of family law where CL might be useful and to increase the use of CL in the civil arena. Considering the limited usage of CL in civil cases, the CL Committee will also explore how negotiation processes might be tailored to make them more appealing to civil lawyers and clients. In addition, the Committee will reach out to the various Sections of the ABA, such as Health Law, Probate, and Employment, where educational work is needed to increase awareness of CL.

The Committee held its first meeting by conference call on March 1, and decided to establish working groups or subcommittees on ethics, legislation, outreach/education for the ABA, outreach/education for the public, and a web site subcommittee. The Committee will meet by conference call monthly and in person in Washington, DC, on April 27, 2007, in conjunction with the annual conference of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. Information about the conference and the Committee is available at www.abanet.org/dispute.

David Hoffman, who proposed the formation of the ABA Committee, is an IACP member and co-founder (along with Rita Pollak) of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council; he is also a member of the recently-formed IACP Ethics Task Force. The members of the Committee include Pauline Tesler and many other IACP members, including the leaders of several state and local CL groups. Membership in the Collaborative Law Committee is open to anyone who is a member of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution; information about joining the Section is available from the Section office (202-662-1680).

Thanks to Steve Kriegshaber, president of the Louisville area interdisciplinary collaborative family law group (Kentucky Collaborative Family Network, Inc.) for calling my attention to the announcement.

Colorado To Ban Collaborative Family Law?

The Colorado Bar Association Ethics committee has issued an opinion, not yet formally published, that collaborative family law is per se unethical when the agreement calls for disqualification of the attorneys if the matter must be litigated. Further, a client cannot validly consent in advance to the withdrawal of his/her lawyer in the event the matter goes to court. Here is the opinion. The Kentucky Bar Association's ethics opinion E-425 here, and cited by the Colorado Bar, gave a "qualified" yes to the collaborative law questions presented, while acknowledging that all the ethical issues have yet to be addressed.

Lest you think this is the death knell for collaborative family law, John Crouch has posted at Family Law Newsletter Critique of Colorado Ethics Opinion on Collaborative Law and More info on Colorado Opinion - 4-way contracts? as well as his initial thoughts, Colorado Ethics Opinion against Collaborative Law.
UPDATE: From the Legal Profession Blog an interesting discussion is here.
UPDATE: Pauline Tessler adds her "grain of salt" here.
UPDATE: Check out Diane Levin's excellent post update at Online Guide To Mediation.

Information On Collaborative Family Law

Georgia Family Law Blog has a nice series of posts on collaborative law here , including this YouTube video from the Today show last year here.

Privacy Of Collaborative Divorce

Collaborative divorce offers parties privacy, one of the reasons Roy Disney (of the Disney fortune) is choosing the collaborative process, according to this article in The Republican.

This, most likely, will be all that the public hears in the media about the divorce until the Disneys' final judgment is entered in court some months from now. The reason for the silence is because collaborative divorce offers a couple privacy as well as the ability to control the timing and outcome of their divorce. It also allows them to control the process.

Instead of appearing before judges in courtrooms and stenographers in board rooms, the Disneys will meet in a series of private, respectful four-way meetings with their attorneys. They will most likely hire financial experts as part of their collaborative team who will help craft a thoughtful and fair agreement, and they may engage coaches who will help them to better communicate with one another through the meetings.

Collaborative Family Law Center Announced by Chief Judge in New York City

Collaborative Family Law Center Announced by Chief Judge in New York City is the post by Pauline Tessler at Collaborative Divorce Newsblog, in which she quotes from a New York Times story earlier this week. In New York Divorce Report, Daniel E. Clement provides a counter-point here.

Collaborative Law Well Received By Young Lawyers

New article about Collaborative Divorce, in ABA Young Lawyers Division newsletter, summarizes key features of this important new divorce process and Want to know what young lawyers are saying about collaborative divorce? are two new posts by Pauline Tessler in at Family Law News Blog.
Also see Collaborative Divorce - A Team Approach to Divorce from Grant Griffiths in Kansas.

Collaborative Divorce Advanced Training AND an Open To The Public Meet And Greet

Last chance to register for tomorrow's collaborative advanced training! Info and press release below. Even if you cannot attend the seminar, the public is invited to meet Pauline Tessler and Peggy Thompson at Sullivan University, 5-7 pm. Here are the details: Download kcfn_networking_event_poster.pdf

Kentucky Collaborative Family Law Information

The Kentucky Family Law Network, Inc. now has a membership application posted on its website as well as the registration form for the Advanced Collaborative Divorce Practice presentation November 1, 2006 featuring Pauline H. Tessler, J.D. and Peggy Thompson, Ph.D.
KCFN membership is open to attorneys, financial professionals and mental health professionals who have, inter alia, completed a basic course in collaborative family law. Here's the scoop on the October 6, 2006 basic training to be held October 6, 2006 in Covington, Kentucky:

John Walsh, Co-Founder and CEO of Morton Center to Retire

John Walsh, CEO of the Morton Center, an alcohol treatment center in Louisville,KY will retire next year. John co-founded the Morton Center in 1984. Over the years he became an indispensable resource to family law practitioners. If substance abuse was a concern for a child's safety, we could always count on John to objectively assess and make neutral recommendations. As often as not, he did not find an endangerment or even an addiction issue. When he found a serious problem that could endanger children, he always had a plan. Those who entered treatment under his direction were held strictly but compassionately accountable.
This level of trust and respect should make anyone happy with his life's accomplishments, but those feats are only the ones touching family lawyers and are the tip of the iceberg.
John has been a very active member of the Kentucky Family Law Network, Inc, the Louisville interdisciplinary collaborative law group.
How on earth does a community replace a guy like this? Knowing John, he has no doubt mentored well and has a plan in place.

Collaborative Divorce: PBS experts coming to Louisville, KY

Pauline Tesler and Peggy Thompson, the dynamic presenters who are coming to Louisville November 1, 2006 to teach an advanced interdisciplinary collaborative divorce program, appeared on the PBS show last night, Kids & Divorce: For Better or Worse. Their book released this year, Collaborative Divorce
The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move on with Your Life is available for purchase online. It appears to be aimed at divorcing couples. Collaborative Divorce, also available for purchase online is a great how-to manual for divorce attorneys.
If you missed the program, the long press release contains an interview of them describing what collaborative family law is all about.
The Louisville day long training for lawyers, financial professionals and mental health professionals will be at Sullivan University; registration information will be posted as soon as it is available.

Son of Collaborative Family Law Financial Neutral Sues To Be Named Next-Of-Kin

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports, "Matthew Snoddy, the oldest son of Comair Flight 5191 victim Tim Snoddy, filed a lawsuit in Fayette Circuit Court on Tuesday to determine who should be named next of kin -- Matthew Snoddy or his father’s estranged wife, Connie Elise Buckley.
Snoddy also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to stop Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn from releasing his father’s body to Buckley, restrain Buckley from making funeral and/or memorial arrangements, prevent Buckley from receiving any type of a settlement of any value related to his father’s death, and direct that the body be released to Snoddy as next of kin so he and his siblings can make arrangements for funeral and/or memorial services.
Fayette Circuit Judge Sheila Isaac granted Snoddy’s request for a temporary restraining order on Tuesday."
What a shame court intervention was required. Tim was a financial professional member of KCFN, Inc., the Louisville area collaborative law panel. The article mentions that he had filed for divorce a few days before his death in the crash.

Collaborative Family Law Grows

Collaborative law groups in the news:
The Cincinnati Inquirer reports on groups in Cincy and Northern Kentucky.
The Capital Online (Annapolis, MD) "Breakin' up is always hard to do, but a movement is underway to make the divorce process a little more palatable and a lot less messy."
The Kentucky Family Law Network, Inc is having an informal gathering at Austin's in Louisville at 5:30 August 24, 2006 for members and interested attorneys, financial advisors and mental health professionals. Details of the upcoming introductory training in Northern Kentucky and the advanced training in Louisville will be provided.

Pauline Tessler and Peggy Thompson Coming to Kentucky to Teach Collaborative Family Law

November 1, 2006: Save the date. The Kentucky Collaborative Family Network is hosting a collaborative family law training featuring national gurus, Pauline Tessler and Peggy Thompson. Details to follow.

Cooperation and Collaboration Make For Happier Lawyers

"OK, Let's Tackle This Unhappy Lawyer Thing" is the title of a posting in the Settle It Now Negotiation Blog. "Look around your law firm. Are the transactional lawyers actually having more fun putting deals together than are the litigators tearing them apart? We might learn a thing or two from them. Take a tax adviser or mergers & aquisitions lawyer to lunch this week. Ask them what it feels like to marry Yahoo to AT&T. Maybe the joint venture being documented down the hallway is making someone's else's day a lot more pleasurable than that devastating line of cross-examination will make our own.

What does this mean for hard working litigators? That a creative settlement providing the geatest benefit for the greatest number will not only be good for our clients, it will make all of us, attorney and client alike, lots, lots happier. And happy clients are the clients we retain."

Newest ADR Option Wins Converts, Suffers Growing Pains

Collaborative Counselors, ABA Journal, June,2006 discusses Collaborative law, and notes its greatest growth in the family law context. The most controversial aspect of collaborative practice is that if either party elects to go to court, both attorneys are disqualified. "Ultimately, as one of the parties, I can decide not to settle. I can choose to make my lawyer withdraw, but I can also make the other side lose their lawyer," says Christopher Fairman, associate professor of law at Ohio State University. "If I were an evil person, I could get all sorts of information from my spouse that otherwise would be very difficult to get, and then litigate."
Kentucky Collaborative Family Network, the Louisville collaborative group. believes this component must be in place to insure everyone stays committed to settlement. Sherrie Abney of Carrollton, Texas, says in the article, "When I used to do litigation, I'd say to my client that I would do everything to settle the case, but I would have to always be preparing to go to trial. It's a schizophrenic process. " The author of A Guide to Civil Collaborative Law, Abney adds, "In collaborative practice we are concentrating 100 percent on settling the case.
The Free Lance Star, Fredericksburg, VA published an article on the collaborative divorce model last Friday. It may very well become a client driven process.

A New Book Out on Collaborative Family Law

Read all about Pauline Tessler's new collaborative divorce book, Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move On With Your Life, on The Family Law News Blog, in a posting submitted by Pauline. It may fuel the demand for this divorce resolution model. In the Louisville area, we continue to grow our interdisciplinary collaborative law panel, KCFN.

KCFN: New 2006-2007 officers

The Kentucky Collaborative Family Network, Inc. (KCFN) elected its new officers for 2006-2007. Steven Kriegshaber of Conliffe, Sullivan and Sandmann will succeed Patricia Bennett of Smith Barney as President. Allison Johnson, LCSW was elected Vice President and John Walsh and Sandra G. Ragland were re-elected Treasurer and Secretary. The new officers will select the chairs of the various committees: Finance, Membership, Communication/Marketing, Public Relations, Standards, Organization, and Education, and they will appoint a Discipline Ambassador. If you are a KCFN member and have any interest in chairing or serving on any of these committees, please let the officers know.

KCFN. is the interdisciplinary (legal, mental health, and financial) successor to the Kentucky Family Collaborative Law Network, Inc., which was the original family law collaborative panel in the Louisville metropolitan area. An extraordinary leader, Patricia Bennett, deserves tremendous credit for assembling the excellent panel of members from each discipline and growing the organization.

Steven Kriegshaber, a past president of the Kentucky Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, will no doubt ably follow in Patricia's footsteps. Having an attorney leader will be very helpful as the lawyers ethically practice within this emerging sub-field of family law. See KBA E-425, issued June 2005.

Stephanie Dietz with O'Hara, Ruberg, Taylor, Sloan and Sergent of northern Kentucky contributed an article to the KBA Bench and Bar, March ,2006 edition in which she discusses the concept of collaborative law and reports on the other collaborative family law groups in Kentucky, Collaborative Law of Central Kentucky, Inc. and the Northern Kentucky Collaborative Group.

Collaborative Family Law in KY- A Look Back

A couple of years ago the Courier-Journal published a piece I wrote on the Kentucky Collaorative Family Law Network,as we prepared to transition to an interdisciplinary group. It gives a little perspective on where we were at the time and it's posted here. As we blog along, I'll update you as to where we are now and where we're headed.