I have been a Collaborative professional (attorney) for approximately twenty years. Looking back at my personal and professional evolution as well as the growth of Collaborative Practice, IACP and the Collaborative Law Institute of Minnesota (CLI-MN, my Practice Group), is a nostalgic experience for sure, but importantly, it is informative in my thinking about the future.
What does it mean to move forward in this world that is very different than the one that existed twenty years ago - for me, for Collaborative Practice, for IACP, and for my own Practice Groups and other Practice Groups? How can we as Collaborative professionals lead over the next twenty years?
First, a bit of self-reflection: I am a bit of a “technician” which at various times serves me well (and at other times not so much). In my early years, I spent countless hours working with my esteemed Collaborative colleagues in Minnesota to develop protocols for attorneys, mental health professionals, financial professionals and mediators. I likewise devoted much time to studying the ethics of Collaborative Practice, working with the IACP Standards and Ethics Committee including developing an IACP definition of Collaborative Practice. I was and remain committed to ensuring clarity about what is the Collaborative process and what the roles of professionals are within the Collaborative process. Certainly for many years, this was of utmost importance as we strove to define Collaborative Practice and minimize intended or unintended mischaracterizations of our work as Collaborative professionals.
I have always represented clients in the traditional court process as well as in the Collaborative process. One of the memorable challenges I faced in doing so was coping with the schizophrenia I experienced in terms of who I was as an attorney. After trudging through a bit of darkness, I gradually found myself becoming more comfortable in non-Collaborative cases owning the values I hold dear and can readily implement in Collaborative cases – for example by discussing with potential clients these values and what sort of representation they can therefore expect from me.
I have watched during the past two decades, in my community and I believe more broadly in the US and throughout the world, a gradual move towards greater use of ADR in family law cases. Certainly lip service if not a genuine commitment to assisting families with constructive navigation through conflict has increased. Interestingly, during this time, we all have witnessed the proliferation of pro se parties in family law matters.
Much of the focus of the Collaborative community over the past two decades has been on the very important goals of growth of the Collaborative process (including more recently broadening its use in diverse communities) and refinement of skills used in the Collaborative process (a hallmark of the IACP Forum). I submit that moving forward, we consider capitalizing on how far we have come as Collaborative professionals. While a focus on process will always be important and needed - for training, marketing, and to continue dealing with mischaracterizations of the Collaborative process, among many other things (I recently listened to a video by a colleague in MN who is an excellent attorney and not part of the Collaborative community, describe the Collaborative process as one where clients are interested in collaborating rather than being adversarial), we have achieved, I dare say, a level of acceptance of the Collaborative process that enables us to consider more than process. The Collaborative process has become a relatively embedded part of the legal landscape through countless statutes, court rules and ethics opinions, as well the work of tens of thousands of Collaborative professionals. By broadening our umbrella to create an action plan based on what we have become as Collaborative professionals, we likely will be able to serve a much broader swath of the public and perhaps the non-Collaborative professional family law community.
What does it mean to focus on who we are as professionals? Over the decades, the Collaborative community has honed values, principles and skills made possible because of the container provided by the Collaborative process. In MN – CLI we have articulated these as follows:
Principles:
· Out‐of‐Court with a disqualification agreement
· Voluntary
· Transparency of information
· Problem solving and interest‐based negotiation
Values of Collaborative Practice:
· A respectful and dignified process
· Services provided with integrity
· Each professional works to the highest standard of their professional ethics
· Focusing on resolutions that work for the family
· Recognizing that clients are part of a family system
· Honesty is a core value for problem solving
· Participants (including professionals) working toward a joint settlement
· Family‐friendly and child‐centered process
· Focusing on equity
· Process is valued, not just outcome
· Holistic process (legal, financial, relational, parenting)
· Professionals are able to work together constructively
· Professionals are willing to limit the scope of services
· Clients experience agency over outcomes and resolutions
Skills of Collaborative Practice:
· Creative conflict resolution
· Deep and active listening
· Facilitation
· Understanding and embodying interest‐based negotiation
· Identifying and using additional professional resources
· Teamwork
· Empathy and compassion
· Problem‐solving and solution focused process skills
· Global thinking and systems perspective
· Professional competence
· Mediation
What if we strove to serve the public not only by offering the exceptional process called Collaborative Practice, but also by offering exceptional services premised on these (or these sorts of) principles, values and skills? In Minnesota we very recently took the leap to do this by holding ourselves out as Collaborative professionals who provide not only representation in Collaborative cases, but also unbundled services embodying the foregoing principles, values and skills. This past spring, we completed a new website design to promote this broader umbrella of services by Collaborative professionals. (See, www.collaborativelaw.org.) The public can obtain services from Collaborative professionals including, for example: drafting of legal documents or provision of a legal opinion (attorneys); assistance with creation of a developmentally appropriate parenting plan (child specialist); putting together a thorough budget or tracing a nonmarital interest (financial professional); or help with improving communication with a spouse or ex-spouse (coach). All Collaborative professionals listed on the CLI-MN website acknowledge that they embrace the identified principles, values and skills.
Potential clients can contact any of these professionals for an unbundled service. With the expanded umbrella of CLI-MN, I am hopeful that in time, the services provided by Collaborative professionals will broaden to meet the needs of many in the public who do not wish to have full representation but would like some assistance from professionals who embrace the principles, values and skills of Collaborative professionals.
I also hope that in time those of us who provide non-collaborative services to clients will gradually come to identify ourselves by the sorts of principles, values and skills listed above. In truth, I am ultimately hopeful that the sorts of principles, values and skills embraced by the Collaborative community will increasingly be used by professionals who do not work within the Collaborative process so that family law progressively serves families in the healthiest way possible.
I suggest that the IACP can be at the forefront of this type of broadened focus. The IACP’s self-description and mission go beyond a concentration on the Collaborative process. IACP defines itself as:
An international community of legal, mental health and financial professionals working in concert to create client-centered processes for resolving conflict. [Emphasis added]
The mission of the IACP is:
To transform the way families resolve conflict by building a global community of Collaborative Practice and consensual dispute resolution professionals. [Emphasis added]
Let’s be a leader not only with regard to process, but also with regard to the very important values, principles and skills embodied by Collaborative professionals that well serve families involved in legal disputes.