What is the Role of the Attorney in Collaborative Divorce?
By Dan Lewis
The attorneys in Collaborative Divorce make up one-half of the Collaborative team along with their clients. While advocacy in Collaborative Divorce may appear to be different from the traditional divorce process, rest assured that your attorney always advocates for your best interests. The attorneys perform many vital roles in Collaborative Divorce, including:
- Assists each participant in evaluating conflict resolution process choices;
- Assists each participant in gathering and analyzing information;
- Helps each participant clarify and express goals, needs and interests during negotiations in service of developing workable settlement options and packages;
- Helps each participant evaluate consequences and limitations of possible solutions with the other attorney, helps each participant and both participants, as needed, to understand the role and limits of the law in negotiating mutually acceptable solutions;
- Helps each participant weigh settlement options in relation to identified personal and collective values and interests;
- With the other attorney, guides and facilitates negotiations;
- With the other attorney, manages conflicts and differences during the negotiation process;
- Prepares the required legal documentation of the settlement, including agreements, consent orders to be signed and filed by the court, as necessary; and
- Helps each participant negotiate post-divorce agreements, as needed.
Dan Lewis is a partner with Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, PLLC, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has exclusively practiced family law since 2005, is a North Carolina Certified Family Financial Mediator, and has been practicing Collaborative law since 2009.