I'm interested in where you get your figures. Siri
_____
From: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Duane Ruth-Heffelbower
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 5:48 PM
To: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [CollabLaw] Re: Critical Mass
Here's the deal: 85% of all divorces have no attorney involved. In
some areas the number approaches 100%. Collaborative law works with
those of the 15% who have the desire and resources to do it. That's a
pretty small group. Deal with it. If we want to serve more clients we
need to figure out how to deal with the 85%, and the portion of the
15% who aren't willing to pay.
I am a mediator. I get the people willing to spend money on their
problem, which usually means the 15%, but can go as low as the 80%.
How do collaboraive lawyers engage those outside their demographic?
--- In CollabLaw@yahoogrou <mailto:CollabLaw%40yahoogroups.com> ps.com,
"Donna Smalldon" <donna@...> wrote:
attendees
TOM, EXCELLENT! I am going to read your email out loud to all the
at our upcoming Interdisciplinary Team Training in Vancouver,Washington
next week!Trainer
Smiles,
Donna Smalldon, CDFA, Mediator, Collaborative Practice Northwest
[mailto:CollabLaw@yahoogrou ;<mailto:CollabLaw%40yahoogroups.com> ps.com]
-----Original Message-----
From: CollabLaw@yahoogrou <mailto:CollabLaw%40yahoogroups.com> ps.com
Of Tom H. Nagelgroup a
Sent: Friday, January 26, 2007 6:57 AM
To: Tom H. Nagel
Cc: collabgroup
Subject: [CollabLaw] Re: Critical Mass
Folks, this is something I wrote for my local collaborative law
few years ago. I submit it as this Friday's contribution towardHoney
Hasting's Collaborative Law Cookbookpotential
CRITICAL MASS
Tom H. Nagel
August 2004
Imagine that you and one other lawyer were the only ones in town
practicing collaborative family law. Every new client might be a
collaborative law case, but you would face the difficult challengeof
convincing the other spouse (the non-client) to go see the onlyother
collaborative law attorney in town. The odds are heavily against thecolleague
non-client going to see your collaborative colleague You and your
would not get many collaborative law cases.lawyer in town
Now imagine the situation if every other domestic relations
practiced collaborative family law. How many more collaborative lawcases
could you expect to have? Wouldn't just about every case that camein the
door be a new collaborative law case? And what would you do duringthose
long winter nights in Medicine Hat, Alberta? But I digress.computers in
Third example: imagine your and your buddy have the only two
town. You link them up with a phone line. What have you got? Anexpensive
teletype, and maybe somebody to play Pong with. Link up a fewmillion PC's
though and you have something new: the Internet. How many computershad to
be connected with modems to make the internet bloom?with
The point is that we must remember that we are changing the game
collaborative law.for each of
More collaborative law practitioners does not mean fewer cases
us. More members in the collaborative family law council means MOREcollaborative law
collaborative family law cases for each of us. And more
cases will give birth to a new and different kind of family lawpractice.
Recruit
We need to reach critical mass. We need more of us in the game.
all the best family lawyers you know-the folks who can look at acase and
make sense out of it and help their clients toward resolutionwithout
needless bloodshed. The more of us there are, the better job we cando at
getting the word out. The more of us there are, the better chanceyou have
of seeing the non-client select a collaborative colleague as youropposing
counsel.that
I don't know what the magic number is. However, I am convinced
somewhere between zero and 100% there is a threshold at whichcollaborative
family law will reach critical mass and take off, so we can allbecome
"recovering litigators." There is enough work. There are enoughcases. There
just are not yet enough members of the collaborative law counsel.Recruit.
We need to reach critical mass.
Tom H. Nagel
Recovering Litigator
Columbus, OH
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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