Collaborative Practice was developed 15 years ago in Minnesota by Stu Webb. Stu, a Buddhist householder, was inspired by the incongruity between his daily meditation practice and his then-thriving divorce-litigation practice; sit and feel the oneness of everything, yet at work go into battle for one side of a family against the other. So Collaborative Practice was born from his desire for families to have the choice of a process that supports them through their transition without destroying each other and themselves.

In Collaborative Practice, both clients have their own collaborative attorney. But the attorneys work as a team, both seeing themselves as being on the same side – the side of the clients’ shared goals and values. The attorneys each work with one client directly –guiding, educating, and supporting him or her. Collaborative attorneys keep their clients oriented to the values and principles of the Collaborative Practice process and their agreed-upon goals while all decisions are made. A collaborative attorney’s objective is to help the clients create a mutual reality to the extent that empathy and compromise can guide the choices that are made during the divorce process.

Also, Collaborative Practice serves clients by taking an interdisciplinary approach to divorce. It’s not just a legal process, to survive by ducking your head down, not being involved, and rushing through to avoid as much turmoil and pain as possible. Divorce is an emotional transition, a life transition, a financial transition, and yes, a legal transition. With that in mind, in an interdisciplinary Collaborative process, clients may choose to also work with mental health professionals and financial professionals. Collaborative Practice is structured to have professionals who are highly trained in each area do what they do best, giving clients the most efficient and accurate guidance. Traditionally, divorce attorneys wear many hats, charging high fees for it all. Collaborative Practice has the attorneys leave the non-legal aspects of client care to experts who are highly trained in the various areas and are usually less expensive.

For instance, each spouse usually engages a divorce coach. A collaborative coach is a mental health professional trained in the Collaborative Practice process. A coach’s responsibility is to give the clients the communication skills necessary to negotiate their own divorce and also to continue to co-parent effectively during the divorce transition and later as a two-household family. Having coaches involved in the process facilitates attention being kept on the needs of the children. Also, it means that teaching communication skills and accessing children’s needs are in the hands of trained professionals specializing in those areas. Often, coaching also helps the legal part of the process move more efficiently, making coaching beneficial, not only for its expert guidance, but for its cost efficiency.

Other professionals are used at the clients’ discretion: child specialists, financial specialists, business evaluators, and even collaborative forensic accountants. Each collaborative team assembles around the needs of each individual family.

Collaborative Practice is a sophisticated process with the structure to support and guide even a high conflict couple through the divorce transition. Rejecting the common negative result that the traditional adversarial system brings, Collaborative Practice uses the divorce transition to build a solid foundation for future co-parenting or continued interaction.