"Neurocollaboration" Course a Hit at Straus Institute (Pepperdine Law School) Summer Skills Program

Tom Lewis, M.D. and I presented a three-day course in the neuroscience of collaborative conflict resolution earlier this month in Malibu at the Straus Institute Summer Skills Program, to a group of students that was equally balanced between collaborative family lawyers, and students who had no direct involvement at all in family conflict resolution.

The course was very well received by our students, who at times were so engrossed in the intense debates sparked by the material that they--and we--forgot to take scheduled breaks. Several told us it was the most fascinating continuing education course they'd ever taken. There was buzz about the Neurocollaboration course in the hallways and during the breaks. Tom and I were gratified by the positive response from not only students in our own course, but students and faculty involved in other courses running at the same time as ours.

Many people approached Tom and me to ask whether the course would be offered again in October at the fall session of the skills program in Woodstock, Vermont.

The answer is, "yes." For more information, or to enroll, go to this link:

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/fallpsp2009/advanced_collaborative_family_law.html

Collaborative Divorce to be included in Law School Clinical Program

U.Va. Law School To Offer Family Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic

Starting this fall, the University of Virginia School of Law will offer a clinic designed to help low-income families resolve legal issues through mediation or other options outside of a courtroom.The yearlong Family Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic will focus primarily on custody, divorce, visitation and support issues.

The clinic will partner with the Mediation Center of Charlottesville, which takes court-referred cases from the juvenile, domestic relations and circuit courts.Students in the clinic will co-mediate with the Mediation Center’s experienced and certified family mediators, he said.
The clinic will also work with the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society to accept referrals for collaborative law cases, in which clients retain their own lawyer, but in a less-adversarial setting than a typical family law case adjudicated in court. Clinic instructor Kimberly Emery, assistant dean for pro bono and public interest, recently designed training for local family law attorneys so they could assist in such cases free of charge.

Family Law In addition to a seminar in the fall that trains students to handle such cases, up to eight students selected for the clinic will receive 20 hours of mediation skills training through a program approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia, plus six hours of academic credit.

“All year long, students are going to be given opportunities to observe mediations and collaborative practice cases, and to actually participate in those,” Balnave said.“Even for students who are not planning to go on to family law, they’ve learned the skills,” Emery added. “They’ve also seen how one type of alternative dispute resolution may be better than another.”Balnave said by the end of the course students will be able to compare options for families in litigation, collaborative law and mediation settings.

“We’re going to have people who really want to have an amicable dissolution of the relationship and that’s going to be really satisfying for our students to work on — Family Law to help people through that difficult time,” he said.

With the new clinic, the Law School now offers 19 clinical courses. The family law clinic began last fall as a pro bono pilot project funded by a grant from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.“The family law pro bono cases are the most difficult to place,” Emery said. “The need for family law representation is extreme.”

Collaborative Divorce Practice in Israel

There are now at least 80 trained collaborative divorce professionals in Israel, who attended one of the two introductory three-day trainings presented last month by me and Yuval Berger in Tel Aviv.

The events were co-sponsored by the United States Embassy, The Israeli Bar Association, and the Israeli Ministry of Justice, and were preceded by introductory evening presentations in Haifa and Tel Aviv attended by perhaps 200 lawyers, mediators, therapists, and social workers.

The courses were both oversubscribed, and there is a waiting list for another round of basic trainings. Participants left these events obviously energized and ready to do the work of building a uniquely Israeli collaborative practice movement.

They face some unique challenges--for example, the existence of two parallel, separate systems for granting divorces--one civil, and the other religious--which apply entirely different substantive and procedural law. But like collaborative lawyers everywhere, our colleagues in Israel have begun the work of figuring out solutions.

"Neurocollaboration" course starts next week!

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Again this year I’ve been invited to teach in the Straus Institute Dispute Resolution Skills Training Program in Malibu, CA (June) and Woodstock, VT (October). As many of you know, the course I’m offering this year is called “Neurocollaboration.” My co-trainer will be Tom Lewis, M.D., a psychiatrist and clinical faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, who has a special interest in the evolutionary biology and neurochemistry of human emotion and behavior.

Tom and I are putting the finishing touches on an 18-hour intensive course (two and a half days) that will teach collaborative lawyers to understand how the human brain actually operates with respect to social and “ultra-social” emotions and behaviors during family breakdown and restructuring. Tom brings to this course a profound understanding of the neuroscience of human behavior and a dynamic, highly engaging teaching style. You may have read an elegant book for general readers that he and two psychiatrist colleagues wrote several years ago about the meaning and purpose of love in the evolution of the human species, called A General Theory of Love. Tom has previously taught much of the material which we are integrating into this Neurocollaboration course in a program he presented at Google University, the educational arm of Google operated on their campus here in the Bay Area, as well as to University of California physicians and medical students, for the very practical purpose of helping participants ground their work with patients, clients, and customers in a more accurate paradigm for how and why the human brain causes people to behave as they do.

For this Straus Institute course, Tom and I are organizing this emerging understanding of how our brains actually function, into the four-part “paradigm shift” matrix that you will be familiar with if you have ever attended one of my introductory two day collaborative trainings, or have read my A.B.A. book, Collaborative Law: Who Am I? Who Is My Client? What Is The Task? How Do I Do the Task?

Participants in this course can expect to learn not only new understandings of why we and our clients behave as we do during conflict and conflict resolution, but also ways of implementing these perspectives from the neurosciences to make our collaborative conflict resolution work more effective and satisfying to ourselves and our clients. The course will include multimedia presentations and interactive exercises and discussions, and given what I have seen of Tom’s previous teaching on related subjects, I expect the Neurocollaboration course to be not only challenging and practical, but also quite entertaining.

This course will provide 18 hours of California Mandatory Continuing Legal Education credit for lawyers; many states recognize for their own CLE purposes courses that are accredited by the State Bar of Calfornia. California State Bar Certified Family Law Specialists can earn 18 CFLS credits for attendance at this course, all of which qualify in the category of “psychological and counseling aspects of family law.” I would expect that collaborative coaches and child specialists might individually be able to obtain continuing education credits from their own professional associations; we can provide a course syllabus and proof of attendance.

While the course will focus specifically on applying understandings from the neurosciences in collaborative family law practice, it would be of potential interest to any conflict resolution professional working in the area of divorce. To keep the courses in this program highly interactive and “hands-on,” enrollment is strictly limited by the Straus Institute to a maximum of 25 to 30 participants, and to the extent possible, preference will be given to collaborative practitioners if the course is oversubscribed.

I’d be delighted to see this first-ever Neurocollaboration course fully booked by collaborative practitioners, as I am convinced this is the new frontier for taking our collaborative conflict resolution work to the next level. It would be great to see friends and colleagues in attendance. There are still some spaces available for the Malibu course, which takes place June 11-13. The Pepperdine University Law School campus, where the Straus Institute is located, is set in perhaps the most beautiful location of any law school in North America, on a coastal hillside overlooking the beaches of Malibu. Malibu is only about a 45 minute drive north along the Pacific Coast Highway from Los Angeles International Airport. Brad Pitt sightings at local restaurants have been reported.

For further information, or to enroll, you can contact Straus Institute administrator Lori Rushford, or look at course information and enrollment forms online [click on the title of this post, above, or use the url shown below]:

Lori Rushford

Professional Education Program Administrator

Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

Pepperdine School of Law

24255 Pacific Coast Highway

Malibu, CA 90263

lori.rushford@pepperdine.edu

((310) 506-6342

Fax: (310) 506-4437

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/summer2009/neuro_collaboration.html

Collaborative Practice Comes to Israel

The first set of trainings in interdisciplinary team collaborative practice will take place in Tel Aviv, Israel in mid-May, 2009. Co-sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Israeli Bar Association, with additional funding from the U.S. State Department, this training is expected to draw as many as 75 participants (lawyers and mental health professionals).

There will be two short educational workshops prior to the trainings, for interested people working in the field of divorce conflict resolution, including lawyers, judges, mediators, and mental health professionals, the first in Tel Aviv on May 7, and the second in Haifa on May 10.

The Israeli Bar Association will host two three day team trainings, which are to take place on May 13-15, and May 17-19. I will be presenting these trainings with my colleague from Vancouver, B.C., psychologist Yuval Berger. Yuval gave an introductory talk to Israeli lawyers some months ago and stirred up initial interest in collaborative practice. In addition, Haifa lawyer Michal Kaempfer has started the first Israeli collaborative practice group after attending two events in Ireland in May, 2008---the Cork Collaborative Conference, followed by a two-day training of mine in Dublin sponsored by the Legal Aid Board of Ireland. We are expecting that collaborative practice will be off to a running start in Israel after these two trainings produce a cadre of trained collaborative professionals ready to work with clients.

Mediators and Collaborative Lawyers Working Together

4/14/2009

How Collaborative Lawyers Can Work with Mediators [Book Excerpt]

During the course of a collaborative law case, all participants need to roll up their sleeves and share information, clarify and communicate goals and priorities, brainstorm possible resolutions, devise and evaluate proposals, and—finally—reach agreements. Sometimes it is necessary for the collaborative lawyer to work with a mediator. Here are some tips for how they can work together.

Excerpted from Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce without Litigation, Second Edition By Pauline H. Tesler Table of Contents | Introduction | Learn more about the book »

Collaborative lawyers make great consulting lawyers in cases where mediation is the clients' choice of primary conflict-resolution mode. The collaborative participation agreement is modified to reflect this role change, and the collaborative lawyers remain barred from participating in litigation.

Collaborative lawyers can strengthen and enrich the mediation process itself. In mediations where the clients' consulting lawyers are in the room participating, mediators who develop good working relationships with collaborative lawyers can enjoy the advantages of having two other professionals in the room who know about interest-based conflict resolution, whose legal advice will be built into the negotiation process, and who are skilled at out-of-the-box problem solving.

If a collaborative case runs into problems, a "meta-mediator" can help everyone get through the challenging phase. Sometimes a "perfect storm" of challenging clients and challenging issues can stall a collaborative negotiation. If a mediator who understands the collaborative process is brought in to hold responsibility for managing the negotiating session, the lawyers can be free to work more intensively with their respective clients. And, a third conflict-resolution professional in the room can sometimes help undo logjams in creative problem solving.

Where new mates or extended family are undermining the collaborative process behind the scenes, a mediator can help return the process to integrity and transparency. A mediator can work with the outside family members and help them or the client bring any legitimate interest involving them to the collaborative table for constructive discussion.

If the collaborative lawyers run into difficulties with one another, a mediator can help. A mediator who understands the collaborative process can be an effective facilitator or mentor who can help the two professionals communicate about what is going wrong, and help them get back into a more helpful mode with the clients.

[ABA Blog excerpt created by Kurt Harzke] |

Neuro-Collaboration at Pepperdine

Neuro-Collaboration: How New Perspectives from the Neurosciences Can Enhance Your Collaborative Conflict Resolution Skills

• 22nd Annual Summer Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution
  Malibu, California - June 11-13, 2009
• East Coast Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution - 2009
  Woodstock, Vermont - October 15-17, 2009

Faculty: Pauline H. Tesler, M.A., J.D., and Thomas Lewis, M.D.

Approved for 18 hours of California CFLS (Certified Family Law Specialist) credit, including 18 credit hours for psychological and counseling aspects of family law

Intended for both beginning and experienced collaborative lawyers, this course integrates cutting-edge neuroscientific models of human emotion and behavior with the practical realities of interdisciplinary team collaborative divorce practice. We will describe, illustrate and demonstrate how a fuller understanding of the neurobiological forces that influence us and our clients can help them and their professional team participate more effectively in the collaborative process.

The course will provide participants with a detailed and practical understanding of how grief, trauma, and other strong emotional processes associated with the loss of the primary intimate pair bond can impair our clients' ability to participate effectively in conflict resolution. We will also examine how a number of powerful pro-social emotional mechanisms, including trust, empathy, and the drive toward fairness can, if properly recruited, enhance the likelihood of arriving at a resolution that is durable and fully satisfying to the parties.

The focus is on taking theoretical and research-related understandings from neurobiology, neuroeconomics, social psychology, and neuroethics, and applying them to improve the quality and effectiveness of our work as collaborative conflict resolution professionals.

What you will learn:

· The degree to which our internalized collaborative conflict resolution model is based on an inaccurate understanding of how human beings actually make decisions, and how that misperception can contribute to sub-optimal process management in collaborative cases.

· The impact of grief and loss on the physical and mental health of members of divorcing families, and how these processes affect client functionality in the setting of collaborative conflict resolution.

· How collaborative professionals can build better empathic skills for enhanced awareness of the emotional states of our clients (and colleagues), while avoiding being flooded by the emotions of others, and maintaining the balance required for effective conflict resolution work.

· The inherent power dynamics of the lawyer-client relationship, even in collaborative practice, and how this reality influences client choices in ways not readily apparent to either lawyer or client.

· How unnoticed power dynamics on the collaborative divorce professional team can decrease positive functionality of the collaborative conflict resolution system, and how to make such systems more functional.

· How the representation of language and metaphor in the brain influences client behavior, and how careful attention to the metaphorical processes at play can help us manage conflict and facilitate resolution.

· What we can learn from neuroeconomics about "getting to the deal" how apparently rational decisions are influenced by emotion, "priming" and other non-rational factors, and how we can use that reality to support constructive conflict resolution.

Pauline Tesler is a leading pioneer in the international collaborative law movement. She cofounded the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and was its first president. She is also cofounder and first coeditor of The Collaborative Review. Her extensive writings include Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation, 2nd ed. (ABA 2008) and Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move on with Your Life (HarperCollins, 2006). Recipient of the first ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver award in 2002, Ms. Tesler has trained thousands of lawyers and other professionals in effective collaborative practice, in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and is about to offer initial trainings in Israel.

Thomas Lewis is a physician, writer, and an expert on the intersection between neuroscience and human experience. An assistant clinical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and professor at the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco, Dr. Lewis has written and lectured extensively on the neuroscience of human relationships, emotion, and empathy, for audiences ranging from the American Academy for the Advancement of Science to Google University. He is one of the authors of A General Theory of Love (Random House, 2000), described by the Washington Post as "a rare example of the fusing of scientific rigor with literary eloquence." Dr. Lewis has consulted with major motion picture productions and the California Shakespeare Festival on the science of emotion and its role in the dramatic arts. His most recent course at the University of San Francisco has explored the neural basis of human morality.

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/summer2009/neuro_collaboration.html

Pauline Tesler

Video Interviews with Collaborative Law Pioneers

At Cutting Edge Law.com, you'll find well-produced interviews with many of the early and current leaders in the collaborative law movement and other conflict resolution and peacemaking practices. The blog has a wealth of other resources about conflict resolution, too.

Kim Wright interviewed me in October, 2008. You can find links to the edited video (in five segments of about ten minutes each--YouTube size) at:

http://cuttingedgelaw.com/video/pauline-tesler-hot-topics-collaborative-practice

An open letter to my "down under" friends and colleagues

The chance to present a plenary speech at the forthcoming “Collaborating Down Under” conference in Sydney was irresistible to me and I am greatly looking forward to it. The Australian collaborative practice community is showing the rest of the world how to do it in terms of mobilizing support for our work at the highest level of government, and I’m hoping to bring home ideas about how we might be able to get Obama Administration leaders on board in a similar way back here in the U.S.A.

I’m also delighted that I’m going to be able to work directly with many of you in a workshop format on the Monday after the Sydney conference ends. That workshop isn’t going to be a highly structured “I talk, you listen” kind of event. It’s meant for people who are serious about taking their understandings and skills to higher and more nuanced levels. This event aims to meet each participant at his/her personal growth point, and to move to the next level of competency and sophistication. It will include presentation of some new ideas that I’ve been working with in intermediate and advanced trainings, and also plenty of time for discussion and spontaneous roleplays of problems from participants’ own cases and practices.

Your colleagues have put together a great conference program. It’s sometimes difficult to be a prophet in one’s own land–--and we all make the mistake sometimes of thinking that what’s taking place close to home is nothing special. In this case, you’d be making a mistake if thoughts like that have kept you from signing up for the “Collaborating Down Under” conference.

Take a look at how many speakers and workshop presenters are flying over to Sydney from the U.S. and Europe, and ask yourself why. It surely isn’t the money....all of us will be taking a big financial hit that we will be paying for out of our own pockets. We’re doing it because we all have the sense that this could be one of those events that we may look back upon as transformative, and we want to be part of it.

The big thing that is happening in the international collaborative world is that our movement has made the leap from aspiration to reality. We are at this point truly an international movement, and IACP is building new organizational structures to help link us as a 21st century global community. I believe this conference, like the European conference held in Ireland last May, may be looked back upon as one of the important building blocks in that process. For Australia’s collaborative community to be effective in shaping this formative global community in ways that serve the needs of Australia and New Zealand, it’s vital that you all show up, and make this a conversation that includes all important stakeholders.

I’ve had the privilege of working with many of you in training events in the U.S., Sydney and Brisbane (and in workshops in Aukland). I’ve seen an amazing growth curve over the time since I first began talking with collaborative practitioners from down under. You are bridging gaps, you are moving from old market share ways of looking at collaborative practice communities to a 21st century understanding of how to build a movement that can strengthen the quality of practice, educate the public about why collaborative practice matters, and increase the demand for collaborative services in a way that can benefit everyone.

The Sydney conference can be a place where that conversation takes wings. I’ve attended many collaborative conferences over the years. Each has been interesting and I learn at all of them, but only a small handful have been truly memorable, have changed my way of thinking about the world of collaborative practice. With enough engagement from the Australian collaborative community, I envision that this could be such an event. However, as they say in Las Vegas, “you must be present to win.”

Looking forward to seeing you all in Sydney—

See you in Sydney?

The "Collaborating Down Under" conference in Sydney begins March 26th. I'm excited to be presenting a plenary speech to the conference, which will focus on how the collaborative community functions as a learning and feedback system.

Conference organizers have added a full-day training workshop on Monday, March 30th--at which I'll be able to work closely with collaborative professionals on specific issues in their own work with clients. This is one of my favorite kinds of training event. Rather than a structured agenda, we will work with problems that participants are experiencing in their own cases. This means that we'll be working at the edge of each participant's personal growth curve, taking it to the next level.

If you are debating whether or not to come to the Sydney conference....take a look at the conference website. Sydney is one of the great cities of the world; Australia's collaborative practice community is vibrant and growing; they have succeeded in engaging the interest and support of government officials at the highest levels. And--not least-- the U.S. dollar is fairly strong against the Australian dollar right now, and Qantas is offering sale prices on round trip airfare to Sydney.

Come on down.

Collaborating Down Under

Pauline H. Tesler

[from the conference website for the forthcoming international collaborative conference in Sydney, Australia, March 23-29, 2009, where I will present a plenary speech at the luncheon on Friday, March 27th]

Collaborating DownUnder 2009

Collaborative Professionals (NSW) Inc (CPNSW) takes great pleasure in hosting the first collaborative practice conference in the southern hemisphere.

Sydney – 26 to 29 March 2009
VENUE – Westin Sydney Hotel,
1 Martin Place Sydney NSW

To be opened by the Chief Justice,
Family Court of Australia,
The Honourable Diana Bryant

Special guest speaker,
Australian Attorney General,
The Honourable Robert McClelland MP

Conference speaker's bio:

Pauline H. Tesler is a specialist in family law, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization since 1984. She has been peer-rated "A-V" by Martindale-Hubbell since the early 1980's and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers in 1984. Educated at Harvard College, the Victoria University of Manchester (England), and the University of Wisconsin Law School, Pauline began her legal career with a vigorous litigation and appellate practice, including test-case and major impact litigation in the California and United States Supreme Courts. After twenty years of court-based dispute resolution, in the early 1990's she became a pioneer in developing and extending the practice of Collaborative Law and interdisciplinary team Collaborative Practice worldwide. Since 1998 she has limited her practice with clients to collaborative representation and consultation.

Pauline co-founded the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and was its first President, and was founding co-editor of The Collaborative Review, whose "Dear Collaborator" column she wrote for many years. She chaired the Standards Committee that drafted the first international standards for Collaborative Practice, and chaired the first IACP Ethics Task Force. Her critically-acclaimed practice manual, Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation (published by the American Bar Association in 2002, revised and expanded second edition 2008) was the first book-length treatise for collaborative lawyers. She co-authored (with psychologist Peggy Thompson) Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move On With Your Life (HarperCollins, 2006), intended for general readers and as a practice development tool for collaborative lawyers. Pauline has recently produced, directed, and made available for sale to trainers and practice groups a full-length DVD (The "Hal and Elaine Case") demonstrating in 21 chapters an interdisciplinary collaborative divorce team at work in a complex case.

Pauline has introduced many thousands of lawyers and other professionals to collaborative practice in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. She provides interdisciplinary and lawyer-only trainings and practice development workshops at all levels, and also provides mentoring, coaching, and case consultation to professionals whose cases are in difficulty. She and Stu Webb jointly received the first "Lawyer as Problem Solver" award from the American Bar Association in 2002. More information about her work and forthcoming events can be found on her blog, www.collaborativedivorcenews.com, and at her website, www.teslercollaboration.com.

Email teslercollaboration@lawtsf.com
Phone (415)383-5600

Conference website: http://www.collaboratingdownunder.com

Online purchase of second edition of ABA book, Collaborative Law through Lawyers' Weekly Books

				Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation
				Our Price: $129.95
				By Pauline H. Tesler New, greatly expanded Second Edition! This unique book explains this emerging dispute resolution model of collaborative law that is helping family lawyers bring their clients through the divorce passage with integrity and satisfaction. Noted authority Pauline H. Tesler explains the goals of collaborative law and the various stages of a collaborative representation, as well as the special ethical considerations for collaborative lawyers, how to develop and market a collaborative law practice, identifying and planning for the key moments in a collaborative representation, and a complete array of published and online resources for both lawyers and clients. An accompanying diskette includes the book's many sample forms, as well as a user-friendly question-and-answer handbook designed to orient clients to the collaborative process, which may be reproduced for client use. One volume, softbound, 369 pages plus CD-Rom. Published in 2008. Click here to view the table of contents.

Second Edition of Collaborative Law book a best seller for American Bar Association

The American Bar Association has this week launched a major promotion to its members of the second edition of my book, Collaborative Law. Here is what the publisher says about the book: Collaborative Law, Second Edition By Pauline H. Tesler Since the first edition of this groundbreaking book, there has been an explosion of interest in this dispute resolution method. Now substantially revised and significantly expanded, Collaborative Law serves as the most comprehensive introduction to collaborative legal practice as well as a state-of-the-art reference. This new edition covers the theoretical and practical advances that have been made in the field since publication of the first edition and features significant additional information on topics such as ethics, marketing, and public education, as well as new forms for use in a collaborative law practice. Tesler explains the goals of collaborative law and elaborates on the various stages of a collaborative representation. To help you put these objectives into practice, she teaches a number of concepts and approaches that really work. In collaborative law representation, clear, complete and well-crafted documents that explain the responsibility of each party are essential. This book provides the purpose behind each of these documents as well as sample forms ready to be adapted to your own use. An accompanying CD-ROM includes many sample forms and an extensive manual that can be used for clients. Review the Table of Contents Product Details: 5130160 Regular Price: $129.95 Family Law Member Price: $109.95 ©2008 7 x 10 - Paperback 400 pages + CD-ROM Here is information about direct purchase of the book from the American Bar Association. Note the substantial discount for bulk purchases, up to 40% off for purchases of 100 or more copies.

Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce without Litigation, Second Edition Includes CD-ROM! Product Code: 5130160 Author: Pauline H. Tesler Publication Date: August 2008 ISBN: 978-1-59031-974-1 Page Count: 400 Trim Size: 7 x 10 - Paperback + CD-ROM Sponsoring Entities: Section of Family Law Topics: Dispute Resolution, Family Law Format: Pricing: $129.95 (Regular) $109.95 (Section of Family Law) ABA Members, Log in now to receive this discount! Quantity: Purchase 5-24 and save 10% Purchase 25-49 and save 20% Purchase 50-99 and save 30% Purchase 100+ and save 40%

Come to a public talk about Collaborative Divorce, in Annapolis, MD

Pauline Tesler, Pioneer in Collaborative Law Movement, Speaks on Collaborative Law and Consensus Building, Dec. 16

December 5, 2008
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739

Pauline H. Tesler, co-founder of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and author of the critically-acclaimed practice manual, Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce without Litigation, will discuss collaborative law and its potential to resolve deep conflict and foster consensus in a special event sponsored by the Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office and the University of Baltimore's master's degree program in Negotiations and Conflict Management on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Judicial Education and Conference Center, 2011 D Commerce Park Drive in Annapolis. The event is free and open to the public.

Tesler's practice manual was the first book-length treatise for collaborative lawyers. Its substantially revised second edition, now available, joins her growing family of publications on collaborative law, including Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move on with Your Life, which is intended for general readers and as a practice development tool for collaborative lawyers.

Tesler, who served as the first president of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, has introduced thousands of lawyers and other professionals to collaborative practice in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. She provides interdisciplinary trainings and practice development workshops at all levels, and also conducts mentoring, coaching and case consultation to professionals experiencing difficulties in their casework. She was a co-recipient of the inaugural "Lawyer as Problem Solver" award from the American Bar Association in 2002. More information about her trainings and writings can be found on her blog, www.collaborativedivorcenews.com, and on her Web site, www.teslercollaboration.com.

Members of the Maryland Program for Mediator Excellence can receive activity credit for attending this event.

Tesler's appearance is supported by the following additional organizations: the Alternative Dispute Resolution Office; the District Court of Maryland; the Center for Dispute Resolution at the University of Maryland School of Law; the Community Conferencing Center; Community Mediation Maryland; the Legal Studies Institute at Anne Arundel Community College; the Maryland Commission on Human Relations the Maryland Council on Dispute Resolution; the Maryland State Bar Association's ADR Section; Mount Saint Mary's University; the Peace Studies Program at Goucher College; the Department of Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution at Salisbury University; the Maryland Chapter of the Association of Conflict Resolution; and the Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center at Howard Community College.

For more information about this event, call 410.837.4060.

The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business.

The University of Baltimore is part of the
University System of Maryland.

The University of Baltimore
1420 N. Charles St.
Baltimore, MD 21201

Undergraduate Admissions: 888.664.9269
Graduate Admissions: 888.664.0125
General Info: 888.661.5622

Collaborative Divorce for Madonna?

From the Times of London,
October 22, 2008

Fast Track Divorce for Madonna?

Madonna and Guy Ritchie could be the first high-profile couple to divorce collaborative-style.

The new, fast-track and non-confrontational way of reaching arrangements over money and children on divorce has just won senior judicial backing - in the week that the couple's split became public knowledge.

Collaborative law does not sound buzzy. But it is the in-method of reaching divorce agreements, with the benefits of speed, huge cost savings and, above all, minimum acrimony.

Last week a couple of hundred lawyers gathered to celebrate the fifth year since American-style collaborative law was introduced in the UK. In 2003, four London lawyers were among a handful who had qualified in the new method; now there are more than 1,250 and more than 300 in London. This year has also seen the appointment of London's first "collaborative" silk: Tim Amos, QC.

What is it? It aims to help couples reach agreement out of court, avoiding the risk of the public mud-slinging and battles epitomised in the split between Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.
Settlements are reached in four-way, face-to-face talks between the parties and their lawyers. There is an incentive to agree: if the talks fail, then new lawyers have to be instructed for court proceedings - at extra cost.

The couple draws up a consent order which is then agreed by the court. This process used to take three to four months. But last week , Mr Justice Coleridge, a senior family judge, announced a fast-track procedure whereby such orders could now be approved within a couple of days.

He said that If every aspect of the case had been agreed, and the hearing before a judge for approving the order would not take longer than ten minutes, all that was needed was a day's notice to the court and a chance for the judge to read the papers overnight.

The fast-track initiative, which has the backing of Sir Mark Potter, president of the Family Division, comes about after an un-named couple had asked for urgent approval of their settlement because one was about to move to the United States with the children.

At first, Mr Justice Coleridge said that he thought the application rather cheeky. But he added: "However, I am, as is well-known, a pussycat, and agreed to hear the application for approval as the first in the list on the following day."

The key benefits of the new "good divorce" method are that it is non-adversarial; solutions can be tailormade and flexible; clients have control of the pace; experts (accountants, financial advisers, therapists or counsellors) can be brought in and work with the couples; and privacy is preserved.

He did sound one note of caution, however. Lawyers needed to be "acutely sensitive" to the process failing so that "costs are not run up first by one process and then, after the trial has hit the buffers, by the old-fashioned scheme".

Isobel Robson, partner and head of family at Andrew Jackson, the Yorkshire law firm, said there was a big take-up in the new method.

"I believe that collaborative law is the most exciting development in family law in my 24 years of practice. Clients love it; they regard the process as direct, clear and amicable whilst avoiding the expenses and latent aggression of the court process."

Cost savings were considerable too, she said. "I have dealt with collaborative cases with assets in the millions and costs of under £10,000 - perhaps only 10 per cent or less of the costs for contest cases with the same assets."

The take-up among lawyers is still patchy, however, with some hugely successful pockets in the regions where lawyers have embraced the new method, but a slower take-up in other areas, including London.

"The clients embrace the concept that the whole focus of their case is on settling - rather than fighting," she said.

Suzanne Kingston, head of family at Dawsons LLP, said that for Madonna and Guy Ritchie, the privacy would be a big incentive. The settlement could be reached "in one of the offices of the solicitors rather than in court".

So it's down to Fiona Shackleton (for Madonna) and (Lady) Helen Ward, for Ritchie. The couple are said to want a deal by Christmas. Using this route, they could well do it.

Short Preview of Hal and Elaine DVD

Click below to watch a four minute preview of the Hal and Elaine case, a demonstration in 21 short chapters of an interdisciplinary collaborative divorce team working with a couple whose divorce-related challenges become increasingly difficult. The unique power and resources of the professional team become clear as the case proceeds. The DVD is available for purchase by trainers and practice groups.

Order the new Hal and Elaine DVD

Announcing release of a new video demonstrating a collaborative divorce team at work. The Hal and Elaine Case, a DVD in 21 short chapters, shows the steps and stages of an interdisciplinary collaborative divorce team's work with Hal and Elaine, a couple going through an increasingly difficult divorce.

Watch an extremely capable and experienced team of collaborative lawyers, mental health professionals, and financial consultant address predictable and unexpected challenges in spontaneous roleplays that focus on professional teamwork in action. The team members include: Pauline Tesler, David Fink, Lisa Schneider, Randy Cheek, Peggy Thompson, Ann Jacobson Nunno, Jeffrey Kahn, and Eve Poling.

The video is intended to support and enrich collaborative trainings and practice group sessions and is not a self-contained training. It comes with a discussion guide and notes for trainers.

Order “The Hal And Elaine” Dvd before October 31, 2008 at the
pre-release discounted price of $455.

Print out the order form below and mail or email to the address below.

Orders received after October 31, 2008 : $495 (Plus $ 7.95 shipping & handling).
Orders shipped to AK, HI, OR, PR: $14 shipping & handling.
All other destinations: Please inquire.

Please initial:

______ I understand that this DVD consists only of demonstrations and is not a self-contained training.

______ I understand that this DVD is sold pursuant to a license that prohibits duplication, sublicensing, and other third party usage.

______ I understand that opened DVD’s can be returned only if defective when played in a format-compatible DVD player

Available for shipment after November 10, 2008.
Allow three weeks from order date for delivery.
Discounted price for prepaid orders received before October 31, 2008.

The Hal and Elaine Case

______ Check Enclosed, Payable To: Pauline H. Tesler, Collaborative Legal Practice Institute

______ Mastercard ______ Visa Card Number:

__________________________________ Expiration Date ______ /______ /______
Cardholder Name:

______________________________________________________________________________________________
Signature:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Billing Address:

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Shipping Address: ______ Same ______ Other:

_____________________________________________________________________

Number Of Copies:______

Price Each Copy/////// Total for number ordered:

__$455 Pre-Release////// ///////$____________
__$495 From and After 11/1/08// $____________

Shipping And Handling per copy:

$7.95 Continental USA///////////$____________
$14.00 AK, HI, PR///////////////$____________
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Pauline H. Tesler
The Collaborative Legal Practice Institute
163 Miller Avenue Mill Valley, California 94941
teslercollaboration@lawtsf.com
www.collaborativedivorcenews.com
www.teslercollaboration.com

The Hal and Elaine Case--A Collaborative Team Divorce

This weekend at the IACP Forum in New Orleans I distributed preview CD's announcing release of a new DVD, The Hal and Elaine Case. The preview will be available shortly here and at my website.


The DVD that is previewed on the CD will be shipped to purchasers in mid to late November. It is intended for use by trainers and practice groups. It shows roleplays of a full interdisciplinary collaborative divorce team working collegially with Hal and Elaine to help them through a challenging divorce process.

The DVD has 21 chapters, each five to ten minutes in length, focusing on the coordinated professional help that can be provided only by a team. The DVD is not a free-standing training. It's meant to be used in conjunction with trainings and practice group workshops, to show the power of the team in action.

The preview CD, if you have one, can be viewed on your computer, using quicktime. It's short: under five minutes.

If you encounter difficulties with viewing the CD, you are probably attempting to watch it directly from your cd drive. Some computers cannot do that without problems such as jumpy video or temporary freezing of the images. The solution is easy: download the CD to your hard drive and view it from there, not from your disc drive.


Orders for the DVD received before the end of October qualify for a discounted price: $455.00 plus shipping and handling. Beginning November 1, the regular price is $495.00 plus shipping and handling.

The order form is pasted above. You can also request an order form from me at:

teslercollaboration@lawtsf.com


I hope you find the Hal and Elaine case useful in your practice groups, and in trainings.

A moving personal story from a New Jersey collaborative lawyer

Collaborative in Jersey

A litigator’s metamorphosis to alternative dispute resolution.

---

A Missed Opportunity

I have noted before that my parents divorced just six years ago. What I did not mention was that shortly after Mom and Pop’s traditional divorce, she was clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. During the divorce, I had sensed something was wrong with Mom and so did Pop, but Mom had gone to an attorney and started the divorce process premised upon her belief that that he was unfaithful, stealing from her, etc. There was nothing we could do, because their divorce was in the “system” and pretty much out of control. The final fees associated with their divorce action exceeded $40,000.00. There were no motions or trial expenses added to the final sum for this uncontested divorce.

Unfortunately, our legal system is not well equipped to deal with parties suffering from mental health issues. So long as the wife or husband can pass himself or herself off as sane, the divorce judgment goes through. Really, all families can hope is that an attorney will recognize that their client is not mentally fit to understand the terms of a property settlement agreement or the legal process, and seek a guardianship for the client. We attorneys, however, are not trained in mental health, so this is a flawed safety net.

In my professional experience, I have witnessed or heard of mental health issues leading to divorce, or that it played some part of the marriage’s break down, as well as being caused by the stress of a dissolution. In New Jersey last year, the courts handled 30,000 divorces. Even if only a small portion of these matters were mental health-related, this is a serious problem, which must be addressed.

What if Collaborative Law had been widely known six years ago and opted for by my parents? What if early in the collaborative process, one of the collaborative team’s mental health professionals (MHP), had detected a clinical issue with Mom and referred her out for a neurological examination? Once she was clinically diagnosed, she could have received the necessary medications, and then, perhaps, their 44-year marriage could have saved.

Although the protocols for the early involvement of mental health professionals in the collaborative process are still uncertain, one benefit of the collaborative process is that now attorneys are working closely with mental health professionals and learning from them. By comparison, in a traditional litigation, the relationship between the attorney and the MHP is very different. In this scenario, the MHP is employed by one party, or appointed by the Court, to conduct an evaluation, issue a report, and then defend their positions to the Court and the attorneys. To say the least, this is not the best way in which to employ the MHP’s time and expertise: nor the attorneys’ or the judge’s. What benefit is there in this traditional process to the couple or their children?

Many collaborative law groups, including mine, the Central Jersey Collaborative Law Group, are inter-disciplinarian. Meaning, our fellow collaborative law colleague is just as likely to be a MHP as an attorney or financial professional. Working together, and combining our talents and experience, we are able to evaluate the needs of each divorcing couple and their childen, if the need arises, so that all the issues may be addressed and solved, rather than just the economic needs, which is the principal focus of the courts.

There is a happy ending to Mom and Pop’s story. After Mom was diagnosed, she eventually agreed to move to the Sunrise Assisted Living Facility in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where she could be medicated properly and monitored. Her last five years were good ones despite the advance of the disease. She and Pop started to date and fell in love again. For their grandchildren, and us children this was a wonderful end to their relationship, and admittedly, unusual. Pop was with Mom every day when she started her rapid decline in July. Her last audible words him the day before she passed was “thank you.”

Thanks for reading.

Kevin Kilcommons

Informal Talk on Collaborative Conflict Resoution in Baltimore, December 16, 2008

Announcement from Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office [MACRO]:


The Maryland Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO) and the University of Baltimore's Negotiation and Conflict Management Program are proud to announce, and to invite you to attend, an "Evening With Pauline Tesler" to be held on December 16, 2008 at 7:00 PM in Baltimore, MD.

Ms. Tesler is perhaps the most prominent and respected speaker, writer, and theoretician in the rapidly growing field of collaborative law, as well as co-creator of the interdisciplinary collaborative divorce team model, co-founder and first president of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, recipient of the A.B.A.'s first "Lawyer as Problem Solver" award, and a leading international collaborative practice expert, author, educator, trainer and practitioner. This event will offer an exciting and rare opportunity to hear her speak and to engage in discussion with her. The "Evening With" series brings national luminaries in the conflict resolution field to Maryland.

Previous Evening With presenters incude Baruch Bush, the cofounder of the transformative approach to mediation, and MIT Professor Larry Susskind, consensus-building expert, cofounder of the Harvard Program on Negotiation and founder of the Consensus Building Institute. A flyer about the event featuring Ms. Tesler will be forthcoming. For further information please contact Cheryl Jamison, MACRO's Director of Quality Assistance, cheryl.jamison@mdcourts.gov.

Missouri Supreme Court approves collaborative law as ethically permissible form of practice of law

The Missouri Supreme Court has issued a formal opinion laying to rest any doubts about whether it is ethical for Missouri lawyers to offer collaborative legal services to their clients. The Missouri opinion is in the mainstream of state ethics opinions, the overwhelming majority of which have given thumbs up to collaborative legal practice. In August 2007, the ABA ethics committee added a strong voice to the growing chorus of approval.

Here is the full text of the Missouri opinion:

Advisory Committee of the Supreme Court of Missouri
Formal Opinion 124

COLLABORATIVE LAW

The question is whether it is ethically permissible for Missouri
attorneys to engage in "collaborative law" practice. For purposes of
this opinion, "collaborative law" will be a process by which both
parties agree that they will seek to settle their dispute and, if
they are unable to do so, each will get new counsel to litigate the
case.

The agreement can take many forms. For example, it can be drafted in
such a way that the parties can obtain judicial enforcement or it can
be legally unenforceable. From an ethics perspective, it does not
matter whether the agreement is enforceable between the parties. The
ethical concerns focus on the agreement and communication between the
attorney and the attorney's client.

Ethically, the primary concern is whether the client has given
informed consent as defined by Rule 4-1.0(e). A collaborative law
process is a type of limited scope representation. The attorney must
clearly and thoroughly inform the client how the process works. The
attorney must explain the pros and cons of the process and provide a
clear, thorough explanation of the alternatives. Under Rule 4-1.2,
the client must sign a written consent.

The agreement between the attorney and client may provide that the
attorney will withdraw if settlement fails. This may create a
tension between the client's interests and the attorney's interests.
The attorney may not want to withdraw, but the attorney must not put
his or her interests above the client's interests, as determined by
the client. If the client determines that settlement has failed, the
attorney may not try to persuade the client to continue to pursue a
settlement or to accept a settlement, unless the attorney objectively
believes it is in the client's best interest. The attorney's desire
to remain in the case cannot be a factor.

This potential tension does not make the collaborative law process
unethical. Similar tensions exist in many other attorney-client
relationships. The most obvious example is the potential tension
between the attorney and client in a contingent fee case. The client
may wish to accept a settlement far less than the attorney considers
advisable. If the attorney's assessment is correct, accepting such a
settlement will result in a much smaller fee for the attorney.
Similarly, a client may be unwilling to accept a settlement that the
attorney considers advisable because of the attorney's doubts about
the likelihood of success at trial. We allow contingent fees because
we are willing to rely on attorneys to follow their ethical
obligations of putting their clients' interests ahead of their
personal interests. We are only using contingent fees as an example
of a similar situation where the attorney must be relied upon to put
the client's interests first. Contingent fees are not permissible in
most domestic relations matters. Rule 4-1.4(d)(1).

The potential that individual attorneys may violate the duty of
loyalty, from time to time, does not make the practice generally
unethical, as long it is reasonable to believe that the vast majority
of attorneys will fulfill their ethical obligations. In the context
of collaborative law, the tension between the interests is not
unreasonable. The practice of collaborative law is considered
ethical in Missouri.

If an attorney practicing collaborative law finds him or herself in
an actual conflict situation, relating to this or any other issue,
that attorney must withdraw or, if permissible, obtain conflict
waivers consistent with the conflict rules found within Supreme Court
Rule 4. If the attorney's personal interests create a situation that
materially limits the attorney's representation to the extent that
the attorney will no longer be able to provide competent and diligent
representation, an unwaivable conflict exists and the attorney must
withdraw.

Semi-Annual Straus Institute Skills Program in Woodstock, Vermont

Collaborative lawyers who have completed at least a dozen or so collaborative cases are invited to enroll in the second of two advanced "Master Class" seminars in collaborative family law, to be held in Woodstock, Vermont, in October. (The first seminar, offered in June at Malibu, California, received rave reviews from participants.) The October program, co-sponsored by the top-ranked Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution (a program of Pepperdine Law School) and the University of Vermont Law School, will allow workshop leaders and practitioners to work together intensively over two and a half days, exploring the most challenging issues we face in our professional work. The small workshop size and informal, flexible format permit us to identify each participant's personal growth edge and to engage in exercises and discussion that can take participants to the next level of excellence.

Woodstock is a classic New England village, said to be "storybook" beautiful, especially in October. The program venue, The Woodstock Inn, has great charm. The daily schedule has been set to end early enough in the afternoon so that participants (and their families, if they bring them), can enjoy some sightseeing every day.

This program is a rare opportunity to engage in collegial learning and problem solving with a small group of highly skilled colleagues from around the U.S. and Europe. Many participants in the Malibu seminar had completed more than fifty cases and several had handled over a hundred cases. These lawyers brought a depth and breadth of insight to the seminar discussions that participants described as highly stimulating and extremely valuable. In the words of Janet Denton, a Texas collaborative lawyer who attended the June seminar, "I found my mojo in Malibu!" David Fink (my seminar co-leader) and I hope you can join us in Woodstock for another in-depth exploration of the creative edge of collaborative practice.

For forthcoming Straus Institute training programs, including the Woodstock seminar:

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences

Bulk discounts on Second Edition of ABA book on Collaborative Law

Discounts of up to 40% are available from the publisher, American Bar Association. for bulk purchases of the second edition of my ABA book, Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation. Go to this link for details:

http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5130160

Second Edition of my book, Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation, now available from ABA

Making the Switch to Collaborative Law

Excerpted from Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce without Litigation, Second Edition

By Pauline H. Tesler

Although switching to a collaborative law practice involves starting over, doing so is challenging, rewarding, prudent, and socially useful.

• Challenging: By the time most of us reach our prime professional years, we have mastered our craft, but we are rarely called upon to master an unknown skill. Learning the craft of collaborative lawyering involves mastering knowledge and skills that were not taught to us in law school and that few of us learn in the course of our litigation practices. Lawyers like challenges; learning to do this work is a particularly engaging challenge.
  
• Rewarding: We work very hard when we do family law trial work. If we get recognition for a job well done, it is more likely to come from the judge or a colleague than from the client for whom we toiled. In collaborative practice, however, it is common for clients who reach agreements to express profound gratitude for the work done by both lawyers. Collaborative lawyers learn to enjoy the appreciation of the clients they serve as a regular feature of their work.
  
• Prudent: The market share of family law clients who want to hire a lawyer to manage their entire divorce within a litigation matrix from start to finish is diminishing. Increasingly, even clients who can afford such representation do not want it. Many clients ask for mediation and for unbundled legal services rather than turn the case over to the all-powerful lawyer of record. From a strategic planning perspective, lawyers who want to serve the needs of the market by offering a full menu of dispute-resolution options will need to be familiar with collaborative law.
  
• Socially Useful: Given the negative impact highly conflicted divorce proceedings can have on all parties, it is apparent that we serve not only our clients but our larger society by offering collaborative law and by learning to do it well. In this regard, collaborative law is in the forefront of an upwelling of change in the legal profession.

To do the work of collaborative law well, an experienced lawyer must become a beginner and unlearn a bundle of old automatic behaviors before he or she can acquire the new, more conscious attitudes, behaviors, and habits of a good collaborative lawyer. Without this effort, the pull toward conducting conventional settlement negotiations will be strong, and the risk of unsuccessful collaboration will be relatively high.

---

Sponsoring Entity:

Section of Family Law

Interdisciplinary Team Collaborative Practice Video soon to be available for purchase

Participants in the recent Advanced Collaborative Family Law Practice seminar/workshop in Malibu, CA were the first to see preliminary rough-cut footage from a new demonstration DVD that will be made available to trainers and practice groups for purchase this fall. All participants in this demonstration of a challenging collaborative team case are themselves experienced Collaborative Divorce professionals.

The completed DVD will contain short demonstration roleplays of each stage of a collaborative divorce team case. It is intended to introduce new practitioners to the roles and functions on a collaborative divorce professional team, and to provide discussion points for use in introductory, intermediate and advanced trainings. Among the players in the video are: Pauline Tesler, David Fink, Peggy Thompson, Randy Cheek, Eve Poling, Jeffrey Kahn, Lisa Schneider, and Anne Jacobson Nunno.

If you would like to receive information about purchase of this DVD when it becomes available, please email me at:
teslercollaboration@lawtsf.com

Really Great "Master Class" at Straus Institute

A small group of experienced, committed collaborative lawyers (and one financial consultant/mediator) gathered in Malibu, CA at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution earlier this month for an intensive two and a half day seminar/workshop in Advanced Collaborative Family Law Practice for lawyers. David Fink and I facilitated, and learned at least as much as we taught. Participants came from California, Oklahoma, and Texas, ready to dig deep, test unexamined assumptions, and mentor one another about complex challenges in collaborative cases and practice groups.

The Semi-Annual Skills Program that the Straus Institute offers (June in Malibu, October in Woodstock, Vermont) brings together conflict resolution professionals and practitioners from across North America and elsewhere for a series of programs ranging from meditation practices to improvisational dispute resolution. Our program, Advanced Collaborative Family Law, we hope represents the beginning of an ongoing commitment by the Straus Institute to include Collaborative Practice in their programs for practitioners and in their academic dispute resolution degree programs.

This Advanced Collaborative Family Law seminar/workshop will be offered a second time in October, in Woodstock, Vermont. Consider an autumn working vacation--especially those of you living near Vermont, or on currencies favorable against the dollar. Start out with the IACP Forum, in New Orleans, October 17-19. Then fly to Boston or Burlington, Vermont on Sunday the 19th for about $250 USD, and take a leisurely drive through the glorious New England autumn foliage to Woodstock, arriving Wednesday evening, October 22. The Advanced Family Law seminar/workshop begins Thursday morning, October 23, continuing through midday Saturday, October 25.

Getting to the Right Section of the Straus Institute website to Register for the Advanced Collaborative Family Law course in June

There seems to be some confusion about how to access website information about this course.

Here is how to do it, step by step.

First, go to the section of the Pepperdine website that belongs to the Straus Institute, and navigate to the pages about courses and conferences. This is the destination URL:

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/

On this page, on the left, you will find a column listing programs. Select "21st Annual Summer Professional Skills Program in Dispute Resolution", which will take you to this URL:

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/summer/

There, you will see a list of the course offerings in this summer Professional Skills Program. Click on "Advanced Collaborative Family Law," which will take you to this URL:

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/summer2008/advanced_collaborative_family_law.html


And there, you should be able to find much of what you need to know. If you have any questions about registration, accommodations, etc., contact the program administrator, Lori Rushford, at at (310) 506-6342 or e-mail Lori.Rushford@pepperdine.edu to enroll or to request a brochure.

The program fee includes both lunches and receptions attended by participants and trainers from all the listed course offerings.

Many people have inquired about registration. I'm delighted about what promises to be a great group of participants.

Finally, I hope, workable information and registration link for Advanced Collaborative Family Law Training

Many of you have let me know that the links in my earlier posting do not work as they should. I'm delighted at the degree of interest that I'm hearing about this advanced training. For those of you who want to contact the Straus Institute for more information or to register, here is how to do it:


For registration fees, course descriptions, and faculty bios
contact Lori Rushford at 310.506.6342 or lori.rushford@pepperdine.edu or go to http://straus.pepperdine.edu
and click on Training and Conferences.

Apologies to those of you who found the earlier links I provided unworkable.

Certified Family Law Specialists: 18 Hours of CFLS Credit for Advanced Collaborative Family Law Course

The Advanced Collaborative Family Law Course to be held at the Straus Dispute Resolution Institute (Pepperdine Law School, Malibu, CA) on June 19-21 has just been approved by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization for 18 hours of certified family law specialist education credits, including one hour in family law legal ethics, and two hours of credit in psychological and counseling aspects of family law.

The course also carries eighteen hours of California MCLE credit, including an hour of legal ethics credit.

The Straus Institute programs are recognized by many or most states for mandatory continuing legal education credit. If you are certified as a family law specialist in a state other than California, check with your own certifying authority regarding whether it will recognize this course for certified specialist purposes.

Advanced Collaborative Family Law course in gorgeous Malibu, California

Here is the link that will take you to detailed information about how to enroll in the two and one half day Advanced Family Law course at the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine Law School, Malibu, California:

http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/news_events/events/psp_malibu.html

If you are tired of talking heads discussing the latest appellate decisions as your way of satisfying your continuing legal education requirements, consider joining me and David Fink in Malibu, where you will work intensively in a small group with experienced collaborative lawyers from across North America and elsewhere, in a seminar format that includes roleplay, demonstrations, and case conferencing.

In the evening, the course includes meals and socializing with trainers and practitioners from around the world who are participating in this and the many other courses being offered as part of this June Professional Skills Program.

The location can't be beat: a gorgeous modern campus overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway and the beaches of Malibu, about a twenty minute drive north of Santa Monica/Los Angeles.

The course is approved for eighteen hours of MCLE credit and approval is pending for California certified family law specialist credit, including credits for legal ethics and psychological and counseling aspects of family law.

Come to the ABA Professional Responsibility meeting in Boston

On Saturday morning, May 31, 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts, I'll be participating in a panel discussion about the ethics of collaborative legal practice, at the American Bar Association 2008 National Conference on Professional Responsibility, which is being held at The Seaport Hotel in Boston. Other panelists include Paula Noe, a collaborative lawyer from Massachusetts, Scott Peppet, a Colorado law professor with a special interest in the ethics of collaborative practice, and moderator Jim McCauley, of the Virginia State Bar.

The panel is going to take a constructive and practical approach, beginning with how to do it right (i.e., how to practice in a way that accords with professional legal ethical mandates) before discussing how practitioners might go astray and how to avoid that.

Anyone who is interested in attending can find conference registration and program information by clicking on the title of this post. I'd love to see lots of collaborative practitioners in attendance who can help the conversation stay focused on the degree to which we do it well, more than on the horrible things that could happen if someone made lots of errors.

Landmark Collaborative Divorce Team Training in New York

Last week, more than a hundred lawyers, mental health and financial professionals gathered in Westchester County, New York, for the second in a series of free, state-court sponsored trainings of collaborative divorce professionals. The trainings are sponsored by the New York state court system, as part of building the first publicly-funded Collaborative Law centers in the United States. Participants committed to provide several hours of volunteer professional services in the centers in return for free training in Collaborative Law, interdisciplinary Collaborative Divorce, and interest-based client-centered negotiations (aka mediation training).

The trainers--myself, Maria Alba-Fisch, Ph.d., and Diane Drake, CFP--worked with a group of volunteers including Kathryn Lazar (collaborative lawyer) and Jonah Schrag and Alison Bell (collaborative divorce coaches) to teach participants all aspects of interdisciplinary team collaborative practice. The two-day event began with an overview of collaborative practice, followed by a full day of skills training in separate-discipline breakout groups. "Cross training" (each trainer working for a while with breakout groups from the other two disciplines) ended the day. On the second day, trainers focused on building the skills required for effective collaborative teamwork--becoming a functional system that can help our clients' dysfunctional systems. The volunteers worked with us to present a spectacularly effective demonstration of an interdisciplinary team in action with a couple moving through a divorce.

I was struck with how easily all of us presented the demonstration, working collegially as a well-oiled collaborative team--even though several of us had never even met until the hour preceding the demonstration! There is no doubt in my mind that this reflects the inherent power of collaborative team experience to change how we all understand and peform our work: there is a way to do this that works, a way that we all learn gradually by interacting in professional teams, struggling together with challenges, sharing ideas, and engaging in constructive team problem-solving with colleagues who bring other skills and perspectives than our own.

One person attending the event was so impressed with the smoothness of our work together that she wondered how on earth we'd managed to get so much case experience together, living as we do on opposite coasts. Of course, I'd never worked with these professionals ever on an actual case. But working in our own practices and practice groups over time, we all learned the same lessons about how to facilitate effective deep conflict resolution in team practice. To me, this confirms what we all learn over time: that the universality of conflict and conflict resolution principles transcends the specifics of geography and national and legal culture.


The training series reflected my strong belief --derived from experience--that lawyers need quite a bit more than can be offered in a two or three day introductory interdisciplinary training in order to make the substantial shift from conventional legal advocate to collaborative lawyer. The design for this series was for the lawyers to begin with an intensive two-day introductory training in collaborative law, as a prerequisite for enrolling (at intermediate level) in this two-day team training. In other words, the lawyers spent the first day of our team training honing their collaborative lawyering skills at intermediate level while the other professions had their introductory collaborative skill-building day. Then, on day two, all professions gathered together for their training in how to work as a team. This is the model that I have been recommending as a preferred training sequence.

When lawyers have a team training as their introduction to collaborative practice, they have met the IACP minimum aspirational standard for a collaborative training experience. But they probably won't have had more than a few hours of focused training in the skills and understandings specific to the legal role in collaborative practice. We all know that of the three professions, the learning curve is greatest for the lawyers. Many of us are also recognizing that lawyers who come to this work from experience as mediators bring considerable skill in their work with clients, and therefore may often think that an introductory collaborative law training would be redundant for them.

Au contraire. A good introductory collaborative law training spends little time on client centered interest based negotiations, because there are great mediation trainings available that provide those skills in much greater depth, and the IACP standards call for practitioners to take such trainings. A good collaborative law training focuses on transforming how the lawyers understand the difference between traditional and collaborative legal advocacy, and on the resulting transformation in how we work with our clients and our collaborative legal colleagues on a case.

That is not taught in mediation training, is not learned in mediation work with clients, and cannot be taught to lawyers in the time available for breakout work in an introductory interdisciplinary collaborative team training. Lawyers who never attend a full-bore collaborative law training may tend to bring into their collaborative work their habitual negotiating attitudes and techniques without recognizing that there is a profoundly different way of working as a collaborative lawyer.

Many of my intermediate and advanced trainings these days are with practice groups struggling to break through the low ceiling that conventional advocacy approaches will impose on the conflict resolution work of an interdisciplinary team, in communities where the lawyers may have handled a lot of collaborative cases but may not have transformed how they work with the law, how they counsel clients, how they identify and support clients in advocating interests, how they handle impasse, and how they work collegially with lawyers and other members of the team.

Interdisciplinary teams are limited in their potential by the conflict resolution understandings and skills of the least effective member of the team, and often, that least effective member will be a collaborative lawyer who is entirely unconscious of the reality that he or she is bringing fairly conventional advocacy and negotiating approaches to the process.

An incomplete paradigm shift affects the larger collaborative community as well as individual clients and families. Lawyers are still the most frequent gateway into the collaborative process, and lawyers who aren't aware of the persistence of conventional approaches to divorce legal advocacy in their own work may put out inaccurate "core messages" about how collaborative practice differs from other dispute and conflict resolution modalities---or even worse, may talk the talk without being able to walk the walk.

I don't think the lawyers who attended this recent sequence of trainings in New York will have these problems. It was great fun, and a privilege, to work with all of them and their new colleages.

A web resource for divorcing clients

www.thesmartdivorce.com
is a site that provides information and cross-links offering a wealth of useful information for people contemplating or going through divorce. The emphasis is on approaches that encourage civility and keep conflict contained.

Really effective use of video for publicizing Collaborative Practice

Collaborative Practice California [also known as "CP-Cal"], our statewide association of practice groups, has put together a powerful short video clip meant to be used as a public service announcement and for other public education purposes. It is really well-done. Notice the use, at the end, of the really wonderful billboard image designed jointly by IACP and the collaborative lawyers' organization in Cincinnatti, Ohio.

CP-Cal has been asked about the possibility of licensing use of the video to other groups. No answer yet, but stay posted, and meanwhile, look at the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok301ML-4ww

Final Training Schedule in Northern Ireland and Irish Republic

It's now been confirmed that in addition to introductory two-day collaborative law trainings in Belfast and in Dublin, there will be a third introductory training, to be held in Galway, Ireland.

These trainings have been scheduled around the time of the Second European Collaborative Conference, which is taking place on Fota Island, Cork, Ireland. The conference is co-sponsored by the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and the (Irish) Association of Collaborative Professionals, and it promises to be both rich in content and great fun. Full details can be found at http://acp.ie

My training dates:

• Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24 and 25--Level One Lawyer Training. Contact John Reavey for details: j.reavey@reavey-ni.com

• Dublin, Ireland, April 28 and 29--Level One Lawyer Training. Contact John MacDaid, Legal Aid Board of Ireland, for details: JAMcDaid@legalaidboard.ie

• Three hour intermediate/advanced training workshop at the Cork Conference, Saturday afternoon, May 3. See link above for conference registration information.
  

• Galway, Ireland, May 12 and 13--Level One Lawyer Training. Contact Brid Manifold for details: BMManifold@legalaidboard.ie

Update on Pepperdine Strauss Institute Professional Skills Program

In addition to presenting a 2 1/2 day Intermediate/Advanced collaborative law workshop in June at the Malibu campus of Pepperdine Law School, it seems likely that David Fink and I will present the same training event a second time October 23/24/25, in Woodstock, Vermont, during the Fall session of the Straus Professional Skills Program. This is the week after the IACP Forum in New Orleans. For those of you on the East Coast who might be interested, mark your calendars.

Attendance at these workshops and trainings is strictly limited.

You can register for the June program by going to
http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/ --click on "21st Annual Professional Skills Program. "


For further information about the October event, contact the coordinator,

Lori Rushford

Professional Education Program Administrator

Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

Pepperdine School of Law

24255 Pacific Coast Highway

Malibu, CA 90263

(310) 506-6342

Fax: (310) 506-4437

An in-depth BBC Interview about Collaborative Law/Collaborative Divorce

You can listen here to an intelligent conversation about collaborative law which includes an in depth response to a therapist who argues that they need to be included in the process--that lawyers alone are not sufficient.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_17_tue_01.shtml

This interview was done in 2005. By now, the skeptical therapist would surely be aware of interdisciplinary team collaborative divorce, which addresses each of the concerns about which she contends lawyers alone will not suffice.

More Information about Trainings in Ireland

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, I'll be presenting an two-day basic training in Collaborative Law on April 24 and 25. Next, in Dublin, Ireland, there will be another two-day basic Collaborative Law training on April 28 and 29.

I'm delighted to be participating in the Second European Collaborative Law conference , which takes place in Cork, Ireland beginning May 1. In addition to sharing the keynote address with Stu Webb, I'll present a three-hour extended workshop for lawyers focusing on the "buy-in" phase of a collaborative case, addressing how to communicate passionate enthusiasm for collaborative practice while facilitating fully informed client process choices. This workshop is intended for lawyers who have had a basic collaborative law training.

Discussions are still in process about whether there will be a third two-day basic training after the Cork conference, in the Galway area.

Forthcoming Trainings and Workshops

In January, I will be offering two collaborative trainings:

• January 19 & 20: Ventura, California [two-day basic and intermediate/refresher course in Collaborative Family Law]. Contact
  
  www.collaborativefamilylawyers.com or telephone Ventura County Bar at (805) 650-759
• January 25: Ann Arbor, Michigan [Transforming your Collaborative Divorce Practice---a one-day advanced seminar]. Contact Nichols, Sacks, Slank, Sendelbach & Buiteweg P.C, 1 (734) 994-3000

In late April, I will offer a basic collaborative law training in Belfast, Northern Ireland, just prior to the second European Collaborative Conference, to be held in Cork, Ireland.

And, on June 19-21, 2008 with David Fink as my co-trainer, I will present an intensive 2 1/2 day intermediate/advanced collaborative law workshop and skills training at the Straus Dispute Resolution Institute, Pepperdine Law School, Malibu, California. I am particularly excited about this event, which will be the first collaborative law training to be offered as part of the Straus Institute's Annual Professional Skills Program.

This annual event brings together more than 25 experienced conflict resolution trainers offering a wide range of simultaneous workshops and trainings for participants from as many as 28 states and 6 foreign nations. There will be ample opportunity for socializing and networking with participants from other workshops as well as an unusual opportunity for in-depth work with me and David on honing your collaborative legal skills and understandings.

Attendance at these workshops and trainings is strictly limited, so register early if you are interested. For more information, go to
http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/ and click on "21st Annual Professional Skills Program"

Not Every Collaborative Client Will Be Happy

Gary Direnfeld, a collaborative social worker from Ontario, Canada, posted the following comments in response to an angry blog posting from a woman in Connecticut who felt unhappy about her experience with collaborative divorce.

His are wise words. As collaborative practice becomes increasingly mainstream, collaborative lawyers and other collaborative professionals are going to see more clients who are extremely challenging. Some may be having a particularly hard time dealing with divorce-related stress and conflict; others may be mentally ill.

With the right configuration of professional helpers, we can often assist people who have the capacity and will to work toward resolution achieve good results even in the face of very challenging circumstances, but we can't work miracles. Something like the 80/20 rule is probably at work here: 80% of the serious problems in collaborative practice arise in 20% of our cases. I visualize our clients on a bell-shaped curve, and I believe that for those on the most challenging end of that curve, no professionals and no institutions or processes can do much to alter the causes and conditions that lead to unsatisfactory divorce experiences. All we can do is our best.

As an early mentor once advised me, "Pauline, never work harder toward settlement than your client is working."

Gary's thoughts:


On roughly an annual basis I survey a sample of my past year's clients.

I mail a questionnaire containing 7 questions and provide a space for comments. I include a stamped self-addressed envelope to facilitate replies. This year I mailed out 30 questionnaires and received 13 replies.

I use the feedback to inform my practice and processes.

Invariably I receive wonderful feedback. In fact, some 92% of the folks I work with tell me my service has been very helpful in resolving the presenting problem.

Notwithstanding, I always receive 1 or 2 scathing replies, totally lambasting me and every aspect of my service. In view of those scathing replies I review my clinical notes to see what I had done with the respective client and remind myself of their issues and their manner of presentation.

I have learned that I am quite unhelpful in about 8% of cases. However, common to those cases is the fact that those clients had multiple prior treatment failures, were remarkably resistant to taking responsibility for their own contribution to family or marital distress and were non-compliant with treatment recommendations.

Despite our best efforts, there will be those persons for whom our best efforts fail. Unfortunately also common to these persons is their propensity to project or lay blame on all those around them. Further, they can be a very vocal as they project their discontent. I certainly have been vilified by the odd client who wanted nothing of what I had to say. Given we work with some of the most cantankerous people and situations, this comes as no surprise.

In view of same, it still remains constructive to hear their complaints. These difficult clients are the same ones who teach us our most valuable lessons. From them we learn the boundaries of our own helpfulness and we may even eek out some lessons in terms of how to better approach these kinds of personalities and situations.