lwseely@hotmail.com's blog

A few weeks ago I conducted a mediation involving a post divorce matter. The husband owned his own business and had done quite well. The wife had some employment, however, she had obviously fallen on difficult times and the child originally living with her had gone to the husband's custody.

I recently found out that the leadership of the Tennessee Bar Association has recommended to the members of the Tennessee ABA delegation that they vote in favor of adopting the Uniform Law Commission's recommended new Uniform Collaborative Law Act. This development bodes well for the possible adoption of some legislation or court rules in Tennessee where collaborative law practice is in it's infancy. Right now there are two practice groups, one in Memphis and one in Nashville, both are trying to figure out the best ways to bring the process to fruition.

This upcoming week will be another milestone in Tennessee for the development of a collaborative law process. The National Association for Women Judges will be in town and my intern from last summer, Diana Combs, will receive the Sandra Day O'Connor Scholarship award. Diana is a 2L at the University of Memphis and made law review this summer. Her note will focus on Collaborative Law Process and I couldn't be happier!

Just watched Dave Shearon's video. Great guy, great topic. I have seen Dave on a number of occasions and really appreciate how he points out in his comments on the war of values lawyers face when trying to solve problems the loss of one of humankind's key intelligences, emotional. When you take that out of the equation, it's no wonder disputants are so dissatisfied with Court outcomes.

There isn't room in a courtroom for emotion, and how do you effectively problem solve if you don't engage your emotion?

Great video, Dave, Mike and Kim!!

Yesterday afternoon, Scott Crosby and I along with a woman named Amy Amundsen appeared on a local access TV show in Memphis called 'A Question of Law' hosted by Judge Kay Robilio to discuss Collaborative law process. Cindy Pensoneau was there but did not appear on the show. Amy is the former president of the Memphis Bar Association who became familiar with collaborative process about ten years ago thru her work at the ABA and the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She was the 'con' to collaborative practice but I think we won her over!

I am very excited that Vanderbilt University in Nashville is working with the Mediation Group in Tennessee to try to bring a collaborative law training to us in late August. Information about the training is on my facebook page and I am hopeful we will have the brochure available to send out via email soon.

Attended a great conference last week in Chicago. Very interesting attorneys and speakers. Really enjoyed the program featuring John McShane and hope to get to know more about him and his practice! Seems to me there is alot of overlap with the recovery communities and holistic or humanized legal practice. Since I am slightly active in the Wellness Committee of both the Memphis and Tennessee Bar Associations (will meet today with ED of our Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program) in bringing some changes to the practice, I found the confluence of Mr.

This Wednesday, the MidSouth Collaborative Divorce Alliance will meet to adopt a logo, a marketing plan and start working towards creating a new way to divorce in Memphis. I have been working with a couple that originally contacted me about doing a mediation and asked them if they could commit to not litigating. Listening to them work through to the place where they need to be has been interesting.

This past week, a committee of lawyers called "Lawyers as Peacemakers, Lawyers as Problemsolvers" was host to David Wexler. David spoke to a group of attorneys on the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence. The good thing is that many of us practice law in some fashion therapeutically; we just didn't know it.

As a legal aid lawyer, part of my practice has always been to be mindful of the particular challenges people in poverty experience.