Partner Carol Buell and Dr. Robert Raymond, a clinical psychologist in private practice and a collaborator with Ms. Buell in LGBTQ collaborative practice will discuss the role of Collaborative Law and Mediation Techniques in same sex divorces and domestic partnership dissolutions. The program entitled “Creating and Dissolving LGBTQ Families and Relationships using Collaborative Law: Encouraging Clients to Ignore the Greek Chorus” will take place on Wednesday, March 6th at the William Alanson White Institute in Manhattan.

From the program description:
Through the use of personal narrative, clinical examples, and actual LGBTQ family law cases, this presentation will explore why alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as mediation and collaborative law, are so important for LGBTQ families dealing with family creation agreements and divorce, dissolution, custody and support issues. The panelists will discuss the basics of collaborative law and the interdisciplinary approach using neutral mental health and financial professionals. Examples from real cases will highlight how clients work together in a non-adversarial manner to create non-traditional family arrangements or divorce in a manner which honors and validates the couple’s years together, or places the children’s best interests before hurtful litigation tactics. The goal is to increase clinician knowledge base about alternative dispute models to assist clients who are forming multiple parent families or are dissatisfied with legal advice they may be receiving from traditional matrimonial attorneys to consider mediation or collaborative law instead.

Carol Buell