Analysis

We will develop a strong strategy.

Advice is always tailored to your facts and desired outcomes.  I try to provide it as frankly and respectfully as possible.  Shut outs are few and far between and often come with unintended consequences, so when someone comes in and says, “I want the kids and all the money and s/he can shove off” we’re going to have a conversation about the presumptions of the law with respect to sharing.  On the flip side when someone comes in and says, “I just want what’s best for the children and what’s fair in the division” we’ll have a conversation about just exactly what you might want that to look like and why based on the needs of your specific situation.

Divorce with and without children is a hard pruning and can be traumatic.  My goal is to lay a foundation in our counseling that our objectives and resulting strategy, and the orders sought, make healing quick, the parties' and the children’s lives better and predictable, all with the end of getting back to good growth.

We will implement that strategy.

Advocacy for my clients happens in and out of the courtroom.  Certainly having prepared I will try to resolve the issues in your case in a deliberate, decent and orderly way by agreement with the opposing side.  I speak with opposing courteously with a list in hand.   The telephone is king and “Yes” “No” “Counterproposal” is civilized and efficient.  Agreements shorten hearings and save on money and blood.  Judges love agreements.  Parties are more likely to abide by agreements they have a hand in making and they often work better on account of those hands, too.

And here I’ll carve out a special note: Excellent Advocacy is not merely nor even principally, “Aggressiveness.”  Those who want to be aggressive for hostility’s sake should be mindful that one can scream and cuss at one’s spouse, file reckless, accusatory, and pointily pointless motions for free – no lawyer needed.  So I caution that hiring an “aggressive” lawyer who speaks only ad hominem snipe, hangs up the phone, or cannot communicate with opposing is not only a waste of time, it actually sets you back on lost deals, court costs, could be very well salting the earth where you will have to conduct business again.

You want lawyers to talk and make progress when you and your opponent cannot, to keep communication open, to come up with clever compromises, and to get your business done as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Instead of “aggressive” I’d think you’d want a lawyer to be tenacious and deliberate in his or her insistence on the forward motion of your case towards resolution, should agreements not be possible after earnest effort.  (Unless you have a lying witness then, er, we can revisit aggressive in the conventional sense, as is sometimes appropriate.)

Advocacy in the courtroom is what I love to do.   As it happens, I often find that it is an efficient way to resolve issues as well.  One can tug of war indefinitely and sometimes that can breed more recriminations and renegotiations than it’s worth for time, money, and sanity’s sake.  Once the issues are narrowed, a well prepared client and well presented evidence at a hearing or trial can bring favorable resolution to the issues efficiently and deliberately.