Kathleen
Donelli is a founding member of the Association
of Collaborative Lawyers of Rockland/Westchester. One
of our other Collaborative Lawyers is the Firm’s Chief
Counsel, Hon.Sondra
M. Miller, who also heads up the firm’s Mediation
and Arbitration practice.
How does Collaborative Law work? When a couple agrees to
the collaborative resolution format, each party has his or
her own attorney, and makes a formal, written commitment not
to go to court, right at the outset. Instead of costly litigation,
the parties themselves, with the assistance of their attorneys,
meet, set goals, gather information, create solutions and
ultimately reach an agreement to resolve their divorce or
family law dispute.
Part of the reason for the success of the collaborative format
is that, once the participation agreement has been signed
by the parties and their attorneys, the attorneys cannot represent
their clients if the process fails to reach an agreement and/or
someone wants to go to court. For instance, if one of the
lawyers in McCarthy Fingar’s Collaborative Law group
represents a client in a collaborative law engagement and
a settlement is not reached, the Firm’s Matrimonial
and Family Law group cannot be engaged to represent the
client on the continuing dispute.
Because attorneys retained to assist in the collaborative
law process cannot represent those clients in a contested
matter in court, the attorneys, like the clients, are motivated
to “stay the course” and devote as much time as
is necessary to the desired out-of-court settlement. As a
result, a large proportion of McCarthy Fingar’s collaborative
efforts to resolve divorce and family law issues are successful. |
