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Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council Calendar of Events


 

Click on one of the events below for more details:
 

For more information on Council Member Meetings, click here.

 

 


 INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF COLLABORATIVE PROFESSIONALS NETWORKING FORUM

10th Annual Networking and Education Forum

The 2009 IACP International Networking and Educational Forum

Minneapolis Marriot City Center

Celebrate

Our Past, Present and Future


October 23rd-25th, 2009

2009 is the 10th Anniversary of the IACP and the 20th Anniversary of Collaborative Practice!  To celebrate this historic event, Collaborative Professionals from all over the world will gather in Minnesota, the birthplace of the Collaborative Movement, and the home of Stu Webb, to Honor our Past, Plan for the Future and Celebrate the Present.  Mark your calendars now so that you can be sure to be part of what we hope will be the biggest Collaborative celebration and gathering ever.

Click here for more information

 

MCFM’s Seventh Annual Family Mediation Institute

The Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation is pleased to announce a special professional development opportunity for New England mediators: MCFM’s Seventh Annual Family Mediation Institute will take place Friday, October 24 in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. Everyone is welcome. Lunch is included, and the great networking opportunities are free!

 TIME:  8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

 INSTITUTE FACULTY:

 Melissa Brodrick, M.Ed.

Phyllis E. Federico, Esq.

John A. Fiske, Esq.

Laurie Israel, Esq.

Joyce Kauffman, Esq.

Professor Charles P. Kindregan, Jr.

Linda A. Ouellette, Esq.

Lynda J. Robbins, Esq.

Sylvia Sirignano, Ph.D.

PRESENTATIONS:

 “Recent Developments in Family Law”

“Property Division in Divorce”

“How Recent Changes in the Law Affect Mediation with Same-Sex Couples”

“Navigating through the Alimony Minefields: Using Mediation To Address a Difficult and Delicate Topic”

“The Uniform Mediation Act: Yea, Nay or … Maybe”

“Handling Challenging Issues in Child Support Cases”

“Lessons from our Mediations: Favorite & Dreaded”

“Parenting Plans for Young Children”

 COST:  Postmarked by September 12, 2008--$155 MCFM members, $190 nonmembers; postmarked after September 12, 2008--$175 MCFM members, $210 nonmembers

 LOCATION:  Wellesley Community Center, 219 Washington Street, Wellesley Hills, MA

 FULL CONFERENCE BROCHURE and REGISTRATION FORM ATTACHED—If POSSIBLE, PLEASE POST ONLINE. The brochure may also be downloaded from MCFM’s Web site at http://www.mcfm.org/pdf/2008FamilyMediationInstitute.pdf.

 QUESTIONS?  masscouncil@mcfm.org or 781-449-4430


Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution
East Coast Professional Skills Program - cosponsored by Vermont Law School
 Presents Six Courses in Dispute Resolution - October 23-25, 2008
Featuring:  Advanced Collaborative Family Law
- Faculty: Pauline Tesler and David Fink
Our location is the beautiful Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont.  We hope you can join us!  http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/fallpsp2008/ <http://law.pepperdine.edu/straus/training_and_conferences/fallpsp2008/>  

Advanced Collaborative Family Law
*Approved for 18 hours of CFLS (Certified Family Law Specialist) credit -
  includes one hour of credit for Family Law Ethics.

Faculty: Pauline Tesler and David Fink

Intended for experienced collaborative divorce lawyers, this intensive seminar and workshop focuses on building a richer understanding of the potential offered by collaborative family law for facilitating deep and lasting resolution of divorce-related issues. Through lectures, discussion, exercises, demonstrations, and structured role playing, the course aims to strengthen practitioners' conceptual mastery of collaborative practice and to enhance the skills with which practitioners do the work. Participants should expect to engage in self-reflective exercises aimed at identifying personal growth points, as well as more objective exercises aimed at practicing and enhancing the skills needed for high quality collaborative lawyering. Participants will be asked to bring challenging problems from their own collaborative cases, which will provide additional material for discussion and spontaneous role plays.

The trainers are both leaders in the rapidly growing collaborative divorce movement which is sweeping the field of family law. Both are longtimefamily law specialists, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization, and both are Fellows of the select American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Both have been named repeatedly as California "Superlawyers." Both bring a practical and direct approach to teaching, grounded in decades of family law appropriate dispute resolution with clients, including mediation as well as collaborative law. Their style is spontaneous, interactive, challenging, and lively.

What you will learn:

  • How to fulfill ethical responsibilities and still express conviction about the strengths offered by collaborative law, during the "informed consent" process choice phase of a collaborative case
  • How to identify potentially difficult clients, including those who may not be appropriate candidates for collaborative divorce, and what to do about it
  • How to educate clients about the law in collaborative divorce practice: making the law a tool rather than a problem in client centered negotiations
  • The narrative in collaborative divorce practice: what story will guide the case, and when and how will it be heard
  • What collaborative lawyers need to know from the fields of cognitive psychology, human needs theory, and other social and natural sciences in order to do the best possible work with divorcing clients
  • How to use collaborative process and structure as conflict management tools
  • Techniques for enhancing interest based bargaining at the table
  • How to improve your communication skills with your client, with your colleagues, and in negotiations
  • What the interdisciplinary collaborative practice team model offers to clients that collaborative lawyers alone cannot

Pauline Tesler is a leading pioneer in the international collaborative law movement. She cofounded the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and was its first president. She is also cofounder and first coeditor of The Collaborative Review. Her extensive writings include Collaborative Law: Achieving Effective Resolution in Divorce Without Litigation (2001) and Collaborative Divorce: The Revolutionary New Way to Restructure Your Family, Resolve Legal Issues, and Move On With Your Life (2006). Recipient of the first ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver award in 2002, Tesler has trained thousands of lawyers and other professionals in effective collaborative practice, in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

David Fink cofounded Collaborative Practice San Francisco and Collaborative Practice California, one of the world's largest collaborative organizations. Former chair of the Family Law Sections of the California State Bar and the San Francisco Bar Association, Fink is the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Northern California chapter president for 2008. His legislative advocacy helped pass the California Collaborative Law Statute, one of three in the nation. An experienced mediator and collaborative lawyer, he who was named one of the Top 10 Lawyers in California in 2006, and brings skills from both roles into his work as a trainer of collaborative lawyers.


Collaborating DownUnder

 

Sydney – 26 to 29 March 2009

 

To be opened by the Chief Justice, Family Court of Australia

 The Honourable Diana Bryant

 

Special guest speaker, Australian Attorney General

 The Honourable Robert McClelland MP

 

For further information contactLorraine Lopich: email lorraine@lopichlawyers.com.au or Tel: 61 2 4297 5524