Our expert Family Lawyers help our valued clients through relationship breakdown and divorce with clear legal advice and direct practical guidance.
If you have a tricky family law situation, or simply need advice about what to do next, our Family Law team can assist you and your family. Click here
Collaborative Law and Collaborative Practice
The resolution processes of Collaborative Law and Collaborative Practice are another way that people can confirm the things that they agree upon, and talk about the further agreements that they would like to see in place. There are hundreds of trained collaborative lawyers and allied collaborative family professionals across Australia, including our Partner, Paul Lewis.
Paul Lewis was an early adopter of collaborative processes. He was a participant at the first Collaborative training course in Sydney, in 2005, taught by Stu Webb (the founder of collaborative law) and Marion Korn (a pioneer of the process in Canada). Paul was a member of the board of Collaborative Professionals (NSW) in 2006, its inaugural year, and in later years.
“The essence of collaborative processes is that the clients and the collaborative professionals working with the clients, commit to making decisions through constructive dialogue. Much of the dialogue is a series of sensitive and difficult conversations over time; the clients with their collaborative lawyers, with their collaborative coach and with the financial specialist.”
P. Lewis
Collaborative processes are a choice alongside family mediation and other options, after family breakdown. A collaborative process can also be used as the vehicle for constructive negotiating in intact marriages and de-facto relationships, for example, to review estate planning or to renegotiate pre-nuptial agreements. Collaborative processes are also being used in estate disputes and commercial settings.
Some collaborative professionals describe collaborative law or interdisciplinary collaborative practice by emphasising that these processes are a dispute resolution method to avoid going to Court. That is true but it isn’t the defining feature. We like to describe these processes as being suited to clients that share the goal of arriving at “win-win” agreements. Collaborative professionals work with their clients to create agreements based on “more 4 all.”
Useful links
If you think that the Collaborative option may be a good process for you, or a friend or family member, please complete the enquiry page or call Anita on +61 2 9265 3096.
