Is Collaborative Divorce Process New?
By Irene King
Collaborative Divorce began with one lawyer deciding to practice family law differently. Stu Webb, a family lawyer in Minnesota, began practicing law in 1970. After twenty years as a family lawyer trying cases in a courtroom, Stu Webb had the idea that there had to be a better way to handle family conflict than battling in a courtroom.
He wrote a letter to Justice Keith of the Minnesota Supreme Court on Valentine’s Day 1990 about his idea and the Collaborative Divorce process was born.
In his letter, Mr. Webb described the occasional times in his career when he ended up by accident in a conference room with counsel and clients where creative alternatives took hold and a family law case was settled. He posed the question: Why not create this settlement climate deliberatively?
Mr. Webb’s explanation of his idea embodied the key advantages that remain true of Collaborative Divorce today:
- Each client makes an informed choice to participate in a Collaborative Divorce
- Each client is represented by an attorney who is focused on resolving conflict
- There’s no threat of “going to court”
- Structured conferences generate positive energy for creative resolution
- With the focus on settlement and avoiding court, the participants are motivated to skillfully problem-solve and develop “win-win” options to settle all issues
The interdisciplinary approach to divorce resolution developed on a parallel track. In 1992, Pauline Tesler, a family lawyer and pioneer of the Collaborative Divorce process, along with Peggy Thompson, a psychologist, introduced California family psychologists to the process and they met together to create the first team of lawyers and mental health professionals to work with clients through the process. The Collaborative Divorce team approach gained momentum with the addition of financial neutrals and child specialists as professional team members.
In 1999, Collaborative Divorce was developed in North Carolina with a 1999 pilot study to assess potential results for families in this State. Attorneys from North Carolina traveled to train with Stu Webb and Pauline Tesler. Pam Simon, an attorney in Statesville, North Carolina, who was an early proponent of the Collaborative process said in a news article at the time, “Collaborative Law is almost a rejection of the adversarial system, which is what we have all been trained in…It requires you to look at a domestic case as a problem to be solved, not a battle to be fought.”
In 2000, The International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) was founded. IACP is an international community of legal, mental health, and financial professionals working together to create client-centered processes for resolving conflict. IACP has Standards and Ethical Guidelines for practitioners and supports the global community of Collaborative professionals.
In 2001, the Charlotte Collaborative Divorce Group non-profit organization was formed and professionals began working together to help families resolve matters without court intervention. With the support of the professionals in Charlotte and around the state, in 2003, the North Carolina legislature passed a law, North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 50, Sections 70-79, formally recognizing the Collaborative Divorce process as an alternative to the court process. North Carolina is one of the few states to have a Collaborative law statute that exclusively governs family law matters.
In 2020, North Carolina adopted the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (UCLA), which formally adopts the framework for the practice of Collaborative law in civil matters. Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia UCLA 22 states and District of Columbia have adopted the UCLA, which has expanded the Collaborative Law model to trusts and estates issues, business disputes, construction law, employment matters, and other areas of law.
According to the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, there are more than 25,000 practitioners working in Collaborative worldwide and that number is growing every day.
Irene King is the founder of King Collaborative Family Law in Charlotte, NC, where she is a Collaborative attorney, a certified mediator of family conflict, and works with clients to have the healthiest divorce transition possible. She has 18 years of experience and is committed to guiding clients in resolving their conflicts peacefully and rebuilding for the future with integrity and dignity.