Please disregard my previous message under the above topic line.
Thankyou.
Patricia H. Combs
(310) 316-0200
----- Original Message -----
From: natalielevasseur
To: CollabLaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 8:14 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: [CollabLaw] Five-year practice requirement? Logic?
Dear Colleagues,
This thread has been extremely helpful as Jackie Kittrell and I
(having been very recently trained by Kim Wright, Barbara Davis, and
Chris Craig in Asheville, NC) plan to bring collaborative family law
to East Tennessee in a formal way.
I am an older person (please read person with plenty of life
experience)and newer lawyer. I have been in practice 5 years, 1
month, and a few days. I was a peacemaker long before I started law
school, and I trained as a mediator before graduating. I don't enjoy
litigation at all, and I have been able to settle all but one divorce
without going to trial.
In the one that went to trial (read the one that got away), my client
had made extremely generous offers which were rejected. His spouse
got her day in court. She had dissipated marital assets -- he got to
keep all his retirement. She was awarded only the ten cylinder
monster truck which she had managed to keep hidden while my client
made all the payments on it. Her attorney told me after the trial
that she had wrecked it the week before and had no insurance.
Alas.
I think we have much to lose both by excluding new attorneys and by
making allied professionals less than full members of our organizations.
However, experience helps. Let me float a couple ideas in addition to
inns of court and mentoring by collaborative lawyers:
1. Independent observation: New attorneys in family law are often not
in large firms and may be practicing solo or in small groups of recent
graduates. They may have time to sit in courtrooms and observe motion
hearings and trials. While this is decidedly not an original idea, I
don't think it has been emphasized in this discussion.
2. Shadowing an experienced attorney through the entire litigation
process: This need not be an attorney the new lawyer is in practice
with provided ethical considerations are met.
The point is that watching rather than doing provides a lot of
information about the litigation process (without the sleepless nights
before the important motion hearing or trial) and should reinforce the
new lawyer's intention to practice collaboratively.
Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful discussion and wisdom.
Natalie P. LeVasseur
Attorney at Law and Mediator
107 W. Main St., Suite 304
Knoxville, TN 37902
(865) 544-7420
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