My Collaborative Philosophy

After a few years of working divorce cases, I saw that even when spouses had 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. The system itself escalated conflict, sometimes resulting in the nightmare family law cases that everyone has heard about. I feel that as a legal community we should have better options when people come to us for family law solutions.

My search for that better process led me to collaborative law in 2013, where we have a team approach, guided by the Uniform Collaborative Law Act. The process requires 100% assertiveness (e.g. this is what’s important to me), and also 100% cooperation (e.g. I am willing to listen to what is important to you). I’ve seen that when people feel safe and heard, they can be more creative and flexible, and solve very difficult cases with the help of the collaborative team. In the collaborative model we utilize not only attorneys, but also mental health coaches, 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.