The Collaborative Law Practice Group or Independent Collaborative Lawyer?

Collaborative Law practice groups have been forming around the country over the past two decades. They are not law firms. Some are incorporated as nonprofit associations, and some are not. Some may be composed of only lawyer and/or law firm members, while others are interdisciplinary groups of lawyers and other professionals, such as mental health or financial professionals. Different groups may have slightly different flavors. There are different requirements for membership and continuing training, and different groups advocate for somewhat different kinds of collaborative practice. One thing all collaborative lawyers and collaborative law groups have in common, however, is a commitment to resolving disputes using the collaborative process without having to go to court. Thus, a trained collaborative lawyer may be part of a large or small practice group, or belong to multiple groups -- or might not be affiliated with a group at all.

Collaborative law groups primarily exist to educate and to provide a forum in which lawyers can share information and ideas to assist them when representing clients in a collaborative case. They facilitate the training of members, advance knowledge about the collaborative process, and help to standardize the practices and procedures of lawyers who will be working with each other in the future. By meeting together regularly, and discussing the various issues, the collaborative law groups help to develop the skills and practices of local lawyers who are serving clients in the still-emerging and developing area of collaborative law. Members also sometimes collectively advise legislatures and the media on the collaborative process. In addition to facilitating the development of the emerging field, collaborative lawyers in practice groups find it helpful for trust and efficiency when the lawyers who will be working to resolve issues in a collaborative manner have been able to get to know each other in a setting other than interacting with clients.

Recently collaborative law groups have begun expanding from practices limited to handling family law issues to other kinds of issues as well, such as probate and elder law disputes or business partnership disputes. More and more collaborative lawyers have practices that are not limited to family law. (Collaborative Lawyers, Inc. had this in mind when we decided to call ourselves -- simply -- "Collaborative Lawyers", rather than "Collaborative Family Lawyers", or "Collaborative Divorce Lawyers".)

Some collaborative lawyers offer a full range of traditional legal services, such as litigation and mediation, as well as transactional work, and some, such as Stu Webb, the originator of collaborative law in the early 90s, have chosen to limit their practices solely to resolving disputes using a collaborative process. Importantly, however, as the field has developed, some lawyers have joined multiple collaborative law groups, while other lawyers who are equally trained as collaborative lawyers and both interested in and committed to using collaborative law (as well as, sometimes, cooperative law), are finding membership in collaborative groups to be limiting, and to have some disadvantages as well as advantages.

Our lawyer directories, e.g. Collaborative Lawyers of Southeast Florida (in the South Florida area) are nondiscriminatory listings of collaborative lawyers. We consider a lawyer who is trained in collaborative law, and who is committed to using collaborative law when it is appropriate to be a "collaborative lawyer". We welcome here lawyers and law firms associated with collaborative law groups as well as unaffiliated collaborative lawyers. Our purpose is to provide a place for lawyers, clients, and other professionals to find each other, network, share information, and spread the practice of collaborative law. We believe that many would do more networking if unburdened from the requirement that they be members of a practice group, usually a corporation, and implicitly responsible for or professionally endorsing each other individual member of the group. Because of this issue, some of the collaborative law groups seem overly restrictive in who they will admit as members and work with, while others have become more akin to trade promotion organizations, permitting almost anyone, lawyer or not, to be considered a "member" and "collaborative practitioner". We understand that some collaborative lawyers may have concerns with the notion of restricting practice relationships and restricting which other lawyers and professionals they will work with, while on the other side, others are concerned about the implicit legal responsibilities of formal membership in unrestricted interdisciplinary practice groups. We appreciate and recognize the contributions that have been made by formal collaborative law groups, and toward a resolution of this dilemma, also appreciate and recognize that a lawyer does not have to belong to a formally organized collaborative group -- of any flavor -- in order to be and be considered as a "collaborative lawyer". Read more at Collaborative Lawyers. Get research at thelizlibrary