My husband and I celebrated our 40thwedding anniversary this year. It feels like a big number but I don't feel old or tired of the marriage. My husband and I have worked hard to keep our marriage fresh and vibrant, and we look forward to the next 20 or 30 years together. But as a collaborative...

Recently I received a referral from Kristin, a client I represented in 2011 in her collaborative divorce. In thanking her for the referral, I took the opportunity to ask her how she was doing. With her permission, her response is reproduced below. At the time of her divorce, Kristin and her husba...

Recently I received a LinkedIn endorsement from Christa, a client I represented in 2008 in her collaborative divorce.  In thanking her for her endorsement, I took the opportunity to ask her how she was doing.   With her permission, her response is reproduced below.   At the time of her divorce, C...

Recent articles in the New York Times and the StarTribune (March 29, 2014) covered Gwyneth Paltrow's announcement that she and her husband of 11 years, Chris Martin, were consciously uncoupling.  In other words, getting a divorce.  I was struck by how the term “conscious uncoupling”—coined by LA ...

Halloween is my favorite holiday. I always dress in costume even if I am not going to a Halloween party. In the past, I have dressed as Ms. Piggy, Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy, the Medusa, a Cone Head, the Pinball Wizard, and stuck my head inside a carved pumpkin, just to name a few. It's the ti...

As a Collaborative Divorce Attorney, I have seen many clients who are ambivalent about getting a divorce. How do I know they are ambivalent? Because, in addition to the story they tell me, I ask potential clients to take the following survey: Even though divorce is a legal process, your emotions...

How do you turn a divorce process into a healing process? By envisioning your highest goals for what you want to accomplish during the divorce and after the divorce has ended.  This is what happens in a Collaborative Divorce process. Unlike the traditional divorce process where the focus is often...

I recently met with a man (I'll call him John) whose wife wanted to divorce.  He was very much against ending the marriage.  He went to the office of his wife's attorney presumably to discuss settlement, but instead received his Wife's proposal for settlement set forth in a Summons and Petition. ...

Well, I'm doing it. Right now. I am at the salon having my hair teased, twisted, and permed into dreadlocks.  I have been waiting a year for this, growing my hair out to six inches in length.  It was with dread and excitement that I made the appointment with the Hair Police salon.  Was this a ...