My Collaborative Philosophy

As I have done divorce cases over the years, it always bothered me that even when spouses have the best intentions, the court-based legal process itself is adversarial, and that fact would almost always infect the parties’ relationship and posture toward each other, sometimes leading to the nightmare family cases that everyone has heard about. I felt like as a legal community we should have a better option when people come to us for family law solutions. My search for that better process led me to collaborative law, where we have a team approach, where people have different interests, and the process still requires 100% assertiveness (e.g. this is what’s important to me), and also 100% cooperation (e.g. I want to listen to what is important to you), but we also work together to find solutions. I’ve seen that when people feel safe and heard, they can be more creative and flexible, and solve very difficult cases. In the collaborative model we often use not only attorneys, but also mental health counselors, financial planners, and parenting specialists. I believe that collaboration is more challenging in some ways than the standard court-based divorce because it requires a unique approach to every case, and more creativity, but collaboration leads to better outcomes and less trauma for my clients and everyone else involved, so it is worth it.

If you have questions about the collaborative process, please contact our office for an overview. I am a member of the Collaborative Professionals of Washington.