Divorce Mediation, Representation, and Counseling
If you're facing a separation and divorce you're facing excruciating heartache and misery. You know this, right?
You also probably know there's no avoiding the pain in this situation.
So, understandably, you want the pain to go away as quickly as possible. Or, as therapists tend to say, you want "closure."
Even though we're not formally trained as therapists, it's our mission to help you get closure as quickly as possible.
Of course, we must do this through the legal system —which as you probably know isn't exactly optimized for speed and efficiency.
Still, that doesn't mean that a good lawyer or mediator can't help bring about a fair resolution more swiftly. And with less drama.
And by the way, when we say "drama" we're talking about all that unnecessary squabbling (whether it’s among the spouses or the lawyers).
Because unnecessary squabbling is the biggest impediment to a swift resolution in any divorce. It's a much bigger impediment than the lumbering legal system.
You see, the legal system has no magic bullet to eliminate squabbling and emotional outbursts.
In fact, when faced with heightened emotions most judges reflexively gear down and make decisions at a slower pace. If you stop to think about it you'll realize that judges are human just like you. And so, understandably, they hate having to deal with unnecessary drama.
Judges just want to focus on the key facts so they can make a decision that's sensible and appropriate to the circumstances. Most try but emotional drama makes it harder for the key facts to emerge.
Which means the judge has to wade through more noise to figure out how to reach a sensible decision in the few minutes that they have on your case. That's the real main reason it takes longer than necessary to resolve a divorce case when in court.
Many lawyers don't mind if the case takes longer to get resolved. Maybe because they get paid more, I don't know.
All we know is we are not those kind of lawyers.
We prefer to help spouses reach decisions on their own. You may not like each other much right now, but when given good information and wise counsel, we believe you can make better decisions that are tailor-made for your family in much less time than you would in court.
Now, some clients don't want a swift resolution of their case. What those clients want is to "make their spouse pay for their pain." They don't mind spending the extra money to do that, which is music to some lawyers’ ears.
But not to our ears. We don't take on clients that only want to wage war. We refer them to other lawyers.
Our mission is to help you get past the excruciating pain as quickly as possible while still making good decisions. That doesn't mean we’re impatient or in a hurry.
Quite the opposite, at least as far as dealing with our clients.
When you meet with us for the first time, we’ll ask you a lot of questions and listen closely to what you say. We’ll listen for the “why” behind your questions, so we get to the heart of the matter.
We truly want to understand what you want, so we can come up with the best plan to achieve your goals in the best way possible.
But let us emphasize the most important lesson we’ve learned in our decades of helping clients go through the painful process you're about to go through.
Let us help you as we have helped other clients.
I was referred to Kerry by a trusted source and when she met with me she made me feel like I had an ally who spoke my language, understood my concerns and broke it down so I knew what steps to take. It was a huge relief. I had reservations about spending the money to hire an attorney, but after meeting her, I trusted her judgement more than any other legal representation I’d met with. She empathized with what I was dealing with as a mom dealing with complicated custody issues and being financially cut off. Family and friends were impressed with her knowledge and follow up. I still recommend her any chance I get.
I knew I couldn’t force my ex to compromise, and Kerry coached me on dealing with the everyday difficulties of divorce as well as longer term strategy of getting things figured out. She wasn’t there to drag out the process or waste time, and she didn’t play down to the opposing counsel’s level. She used integrity and compassion to get what I needed done. Kerry helped by standing by me through the whole process, from the early days of being overwhelmed and needing constant advice through the tough days in court and depositions and through the annoyances of frivolous notices and threats of the opposition and finally to a point of guidance through mediation. Every step of the way she had my back and shared with me what she was doing and why.
Now, over a year later, I still look back and am grateful for her work, her tenacity, and her informed and matter of fact attitude that made me realize that life will go on, divorce is survivable, and that while some things are not in your control, you do have the ability to make smart choices throughout the process to keep costs down and not just create more problems. You want to end this process hopeful about the future and Kerry helped me feel that.
I absolutely recommend Kerry to someone going through a divorce that needs to be put on track and prioritized and needs to get to the heart of the issues. There’s so much that gets thrown into it and it’s hard to filter out what’s important until you have someone like Kerry telling you what to focus on in the now and then helping move you to the next step. Kerry gave me a voice in a situation where I felt powerless over what was happening, and I will always be grateful for that.
For many years now, I have been the go-to girl for friends thinking about divorce. For a few friends, divorce has been a decision filled with relief and hope for a better future but more often, I have sat with sobbing, grief-stricken friends who feel angry or lost or humiliated or terrified.
I too felt all of those things and more during one of the most anguishing times of my life. I am so grateful that I met Kerry, and she helped me focus on the big picture. Certainly money and custody are the big issues that kept me up at night but she was also great about encouraging me to move through a hideous experience with grace and kindness toward my children's father. She taught me to let go of the small stuff and just as she promised, so many of those battles are completely irrelevant and insignificant now.
Friends often comment that my ex-husband and I did this divorce thing so well and our children seem healthy and happy. It doesn't always feel like that to me, but I'm grateful that her kind and wise counsel helped me get through an awful experience in a way that was not damaging to my children.
Kerry's kindness, expertise, wisdom and thoughtfulness helped get me through a difficult time and I'm happy to say there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I've been happy to refer Kerry to several friends over the years and will continue to do so.
I have had the pleasure of working with Kerry on a number of occasions. Kerry simply has a way of delivering the information to in a way that keeps everything positive.
Her intonations, engagement, mannerism, and style have a unique quality, which casts everything in a light of positivism, encouragement, support and cooperation. I try to glean something from every case and every professional.
Her skills and style, though not so easily taught, ought to be, for they underscore the enormous impact the energy we bring into a situation as professionals has on the process. Kerry is a very gifted mediator/ collaborative professional.