President’s Letter – October 2019

There’s a video I did a few years ago for the Florida Young Lawyers association about Collaborative process.  I started with the idea that for clients, litigation divorce is like the suffering of a patient long ago who had surgery without anesthesia.  Now that we have drugs that eliminate pain during surgery we can’t imagine cutting into people and hearing them scream in pain. Litigation divorce is like surgery anesthesia.
Or here’s another analogy.  If you have to go somewhere, and there are no cars, buses, planes, trains, bicycles, skateboards or roller skates: you walk.  But once all those things exist, and you have to get somewhere and would like to save the travel time—wouldn’t you choose wheels over walking? If you knew about Collaborative process wouldn’t you choose it?
That’s my dream for Collaborative—to have every divorce consumer understand that Collaborative offers a better path to divorce.   
As a Collaborative client said to me:  she felt so supported by the team! She was astounded when she went to a divorce recovery workshop and met all those people who felt like they were run over by a truck after the non-Collaborative divorce process was finished with them.
Who Knew?
Collaborative Divorce is spreading at colleges, universities and law schools and in our communities:
David Hoffman at Harvard;
Woody Mosten at UCLA;
Brenda London at Barry School of Law in Orlando;
Randy Heller at the Graduate school of marriage and family therapists at Nova Southeastern;
Robert Merlin guest lectures on collaborative at UF Law School;
Joshua Jones is planning a collaborative class at Indiana University McKinney School of Law.
Our Florida Collaborative community is spreading the word:
Elaine Silver appeared on 90.7 WMFE FM Orlando talk show The 3 Wise Guys: Friends Talking Faith to talk about peaceful divorce. Listen to the podcast here:  https://twgradio.com/
Bhakti Cohen, LMFT and Mediator, is presenting a Peaceful Divorce Options class two Saturdays a month at her office in Gainesville.
Sheila Furr, Ph.D., Charles Cohen, Esq., Christen Ritchey, Esq. and Jeffrey Wasserman, Esq. of The South Palm Beach County Collaborative Law Group (SPBCCLG) were the featured speakers  at a one-hour introduction to Collaborative Law at the South Palm Beach County Bar Association Family Law Committee in September. Lawyers, Judges and Magistrates were in the audience. SPCCLG expects to gain new members as a result.
Michael Sampson, Esq. of Orlando brought his presentation on Marketing Collaborative Practice to the South Palm Beach County Collaborative Law Group in October.
Don’t forget to update your personal website and your Collaborative Practice group web site regularly.  Social media is free—but it takes some care and feeding.
We are all “Raving Fans” (See Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service by Blanchard & Bowles) of Collaborative—let’s keep spreading the word. 
Share with the FACP community what you are doing to teach about Collaborative in schools, faith communities, networking groups, anywhere and everywhere! Email me at:  ESilver@SilverDivorce.com and we’ll post on the FACP Facebook page.
IACP – Let Randy Heller know if you’ll be at IACP in Chicago next week.  
Leadership conversations—sign up as practice group leader on your IACP membership profile. Then you will be invited to next meeting in January.
Attention Collaborative Lawyers:  The Family Law Section of the Florida Bar Certification committee needs a passionate Collaborative attorney who is Board Certified in Family Law to join the Certification committee to make Collaborative part of the regular curriculum at Cert Review.  Sign up for the long haul to help bring Collaborative into every family lawyer’s toolbox.  
Thanks to everyone for all you do to make Collaborative Divorce available to all of Florida’s families!  It takes a Team!