Jonathan Kales’ collaborative divorce client, Dick White, and his wife, Margie, were on CNN in a piece about divorce after 50. . Just six months after their divorce, they come across as warm, well adjusted, and still caring very much for one another. How are these folks able to do...
Read morePower Couple: a couple, where both members have tremendously successful careers, or are politically powerful, or are celebrities, or all three. What are some examples: Barack and Michelle Obama, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, James Carville and Mary Matalin, Mia Hamm and Nomar Garciaparra, and Amy and Jonathan Kales. What? You say Amy...
Read moreWhat is the “disqualification clause?” When you divorce collaboratively, you and your spouse sign a participation agreement where, if the process breaks down, their lawyers must withdraw from the case and may not represent them in court. What? Why would you agree to that? Intuitively, if you have not...
Read moreIndifference. If you phone or email your attorney, and they don’t get back to you within 24 hours, 48 hours max, unless they have a good excuse (e.g., they’re on vacation), the lawyer probably isn’t terribly interested in you or your case. Before you ask, yes, lawyers are allowed to...
Read moreEvery individual case has its own unique set of circumstances and the time involved in a collaborative divorce will always depend on how complex the unresolved issues are and how difficult it will be for the participants to resolve them. The more willingness the participants show to work together...
Read moreThe first reason is that collaborative divorce attorneys enter the process with an entirely different mindset about what their role is. This is often referred to as a ‘paradigm shift.’ Rather than advocating to win their clients the largest settlement possible regardless of the cost and who gets hurt,...
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