COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

The collaborative practice model is a structured, alternative dispute resolution model for achieving a divorce or separation in a non-adversarial manner.   Collaborative practice provides you with the support and guidance of your own respective lawyers without threat of litigation and thus, helps to create a respectful environment.

Members of the LGBTQI Family Professionals of New York are specifically trained in the collaborative model and, understand the complexities of how the legal system works in the context of lesbian, gay, transgender and queer families.

This is a team model typically utilizing attorneys, mental health professionals, child specialists and financial experts. Private meetings are held with the professionals as necessary and the hard work of identifying goals, reviewing options and negotiating for resolution is done in structured team meetings. Participants are encouraged to express concerns and desires, and our professional team works to help you come to an agreeable resolution of the issues, all with the specific knowledge and sensitivity needed to work in LGBTQI communities. The process recognizes that the trauma of separation and/or divorce can be significant and, therefore, we utilize techniques to promote constructive resolutions.

Good communication is key to the process and the collaborative practice model fosters it. If and when emotions run high during the process, members of the professional team are sensitive and empathic while able to focus on the goal of resolution.  Team members are uniquely trained and skilled in conflict resolution and mediating strategies.  When children are involved, the collaborative process prioritizes the importance of providing the best settlement arrangement to meet their needs.

Collaborative practice is an efficient and respectful way to come to a well thought-out client-centered settlement.  Couples are not constrained by legal standards, but rather can use legal standards as guides to develop an agreement that meets particular individual needs and desires, especially in non-traditional family situations.  This model is useful for a variety of family issues such as creating pre-nuptial agreements, donor and family building agreements and separation or divorce.