About Collaborative Practice

Collaborative Practice allows you to divorce with dignity, respect, and cooperation. Each spouse retains a lawyer, and both attorneys conduct settlement negotiations to combine your ownership of the process with the assurance of legal protection. The process includes other Collaborative Practice professionals, such as financial planners and therapists. You, your spouse, and your Collaborative Practice team agree to be cooperative, forthcoming, and willing to work together to achieve a resolution. If you can't reach an agreement, both lawyers (and their respective law firms) as well as the other collaborative professionals must withdraw from the case.

By choosing Collaborative Practice to settle your divorce, you'll enjoy these advantages:

• Lower costs
• Less stress
• Create win-win solutions
• Learn creative problem-solving techniques
• Retain control over your future
• Avoid court
• Protect your rights, assets, and your family
• Less bitterness, anger, and conflict

Collaborative practitioners:

Jeffrey W. Brend, JD, CPA/ABV, ASA, CFE, CFF, AAML., Attorney/Financial Specialist is exceptionally qualified to encourage the collaborate process from a family law and financial perspective. He is qualified as a financial expert to value businesses, determine net income and complete financial investigations. Jeffrey is currently serving on the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Collaborative Law Committee. He is also a fellow of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois and a member of International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. 

Lyn C. Conniff, J.D. A practicing attorney for 23 years, Lyn's concentration is family law. Lyn is also trained in family law mediation and collaborative law. Lyn is committed to the Collaborative Law process and to reaching an amicable resolution outside the legal process. The cornerstone of a successful collaborative divorce is a focus on the family's (especially the children's) needs and interests. A divorce with dignity must focus on each family member's needs and interests and not on winning and losing.

Karen Covy is committed to helping clients make the best possible choices for themselves and their families through collaboration, mediation, negotiation and, only if necessary, litigation. She is a lawyer, a mediator, and trained in collaborative law. A successful attorney with over 25 years of experience, she focuses her practice in family law and the sensible, and amicable resolution of disputes.

Jerald A. Kessler is a founder of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois. Jerry has over 30 years of experience representing people going through divorce. An accomplished mediator, he has taught conflict resolution at the college, graduate and law school levels. He has presented at numerous professional conferences at the state and national level. Jerry is committed to making divorce a humane and affordable process, free of the hurtful games that often typify adversarial proceedings. Offices in Libertyville, Northfield and Chicago.

Sandra Rosenbloom, J.D. believes in providing effective advocacy with dignity and compassion for her clients by helping them resolve their disputes amicably through collaborative practice and mediation. She is a Fellow and former Director of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois, a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, a former editor of the Collaborative Review, a member of the Mediation Council of Illinois, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola University of Chicago Law School. She practices in Lake and Cook Counties.

Visit www.divorcemag.com/articles/Collaborative_Law to find out the benefits of collaborative divorce.

Tuesday, February 14
at 8 pm to 8:30 EST
Preparing for Divorce Mediation - 5 Steps of Negotiation Power to get what you want
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