Live from Santa Fe: Historic Proceedings: Uniform Collaborative Law

Today is expected to be historic in the Collaborative Law movement. I'm in Santa Fe, observing the proceedings of the Uniform Law Commission as the Uniform Collaborative Law Act (UCLA) is being considered.

IACP Advisory Board member Harry Tindall of Houston, Texas, a Commissioner member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws.

About the Uniform Law Commission:

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL), now in its 116th year, provides states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law.

From their site, click for more detail: http://www.nccusl.org/Update/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=0&tabid=9

The Uniform Law Commission is a body which drafted the UCC, the UCCJA, the UCCJEA and UIFSA, among other important pieces of legislation.

History of the Act:

The first drafting meeting was held in Salt Lake City, April 20-21, 2007. Professor Andrew Schepard of Hofstra University School of Law is the Reporter for the Committee, and has been responsible for translating the committee’s deliberations into a coherent statute for adoption by various state legislatures and rule-making bodies.

Since that initial meeting, there were numerous opportunities for input and commentary from the Collaborative community. This is the last reading of the act.

History of UCLA from web site: http://www.nccusl.org/Update/CommitteeSearchResults.aspx?committee=279

What They Do in This Meeting:

Much of the inquiry is about fine-tuning at this point (about an hour into the process). Each paragraph of the UCLA is read to the room and members of the Commission ask questions. We've now learned the difference in verbal (as opposed to non-verbal gestures) and oral (spoken words) and why both must be in the act, for example. At this point, there hasn't been much controversy of the substance but there is an undercurrent that leads me to believe it might get testy later.

Who's here:

The UCLA Committee Members:

Munson, Peter K., Chair
Ward, Cam, Member
Bailey, Robert G., Member
Kent, Elizabeth, Member
Tindall, Harry L., Member
Sher, Byron D., Member
Ferry, Michael A., Member
Davies, Jack, Division Chair Member
Schepard, Andrew, Reporter
Stansbury, Carlton D., ABA Advisor
Maxwell, Lawrence R, ABA Section Advisor
Stevens, Charla Bizios, ABA Section Advisor
Walther, Gretchen, ABA Section Advisor

In addition to Committee Members, there are a number of observers here.

I'll add photos later. (Sorry, forgot to bring the download cable.) As I arrived, I immediately saw Talia Katz, Linda Wray, Norma Trusch and commissioner Cam Ward (Alabama) in the hall. Inside, I quickly saw Nancy Cameron, Harry Tindall, a member of the commission, and Mary Pence.

Who's Observing:

Talia Katz is the Executive Director of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, www.collaborativepractice.com, an international non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public and professionals about Collaborative Practice. Talia wasa family law litigator for fifteen years before choosing to practice as a Collaborative attorney and later becoming the Executive Director of IACP.

Nancy Cameron is the President of the Board of Directors of the IACP. In 2001 she was a member of the team to create the first collaborative law training in British Columbia and was one of the founders of the Vancouver practice group. She has developed materials for and presented numerous trainings in the inter-disciplinary model of collaborative practice in both Canada and the United States. Since 2003, she has been an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia faculty of law, where she co-teaches a course in collaborative practice.

Mary S. Pence, is a founding member of the Collaborative Law Alliance of D.C. and the chairperson of the Collaborative Law Committee of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers ("AAML").

Norma Trusch has been a leader in bringing collaborative law to Texas, one of the states with the strongest presence in the country and the first state to pass a collaborative law act. She is past president of the IACP and a renowned trainer in Collaborative Practice.

Linda Wray practices collaborative law in Edina, Minnesota, the community where it all started with Stu Webb. She has served as President of the Collaborative Law Institute of Minnesota, and on its Board of Directors for 4 years; chaired a committee that drafted protocols of practice for Collaborative professionals; chaired a Task Force whose work contributed to the enactment of the first statewide rule of Collaborative Law; and made numerous presentations and written about the Collaborative model. She is the co-chair the IACP Research Committee that is conducting the most comprehensive research regarding Collaborative Law to date and chair two committees of the Collaborative Law Institute - MN.

Harry Tindall is a member of the Uniform Law Commission. Another leading member of the Texas collaborative law community, he is the co-author of Sampson and Tindall's Texas Family Code Annotated (17th edition, Thomson-West); Chair of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Family Law, a joint venture of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; and has a charter listing in the Best Lawyers in America.

Other Links:

Posting by Carl Michael Rossi on UCLA:
http://www.cuttingedgelaw.com/blog/proposed-uniform-collaborative-law-act