Conceived in Minnesota in 1990 by trend-setting lawyer Stu Webb, Collaborative Law Practice is a dispute resolution process that provides an alternative to litigation for parties desiring to operate in an environment of openness, focusing on a future potential for healthy exchange. This has been especially successful in divorce matters where parties have an interest in maintaining dignity and civility for their future prosperity and success individually and as a family, but is rapidly growing and results have been positive in other litigation matters as well. Foundationally, collaborative law requires the parties enter into a participation agreement which disqualifies attorneys from continued representation of their clients in the event the settlement process fails. John Lande, University of Missouri, describes the process:

Collaborative law is an important innovation that establishes a general norm of interest-based negotiation and intentionally develops a new legal culture. Collaborative law reverses the traditional presumption that negotiations will use adversarial negotiation. Collaborative law parties and lawyers sign a participation agreement establishing the rules for the process. Under these agreements, lawyers and parties (negotiators) focus exclusively on negotiation, disclosing all relevant information and using an interested-based approach. Negotiators work primarily in four-way meetings in which everyone is expected to participate actively.

While collaborative law. and specifically multidisciplinary practices, have been hotly debated in nearly every state as potentially unethical, the ABA issued its formal opinion on the issue in August 2007, labeling the practice of Collaborative Law permissible as a limited scope representation.

Additional Recources:

• Cooperative Law
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Creative Problem Solving
• Legal Skills & Coaching
• Mediation
• Peacemaking