November 2006 Newsletter

Don’t miss this event! Register today:

CLI Minnesota Presents: “Interdisciplinary Collaborative Practice” Training

Join Us For This Exciting Immersion Into Interdisciplinary Collaborative Practice

This interactive and experiential training is presented by National Trainers:

Victoria Smith, Attorney, of Toronto, Canada

Dr. Susan Gamache of Vancouver, Canada

Sign up now!! Call Jo at (763) 566-8800 and send checks to:

Collaborative Law Institute
6160 Summit Drive N., Suite 425
Minneapolis, MN 55430

Click here for more details.

Message from the President:

The falling leaves, the cooler weather and the changing of yet another season inevitably brings to my attention the powerful forces of nature and with that, some perspective and pause for reflection.

The Collaborative Law Institute has worked long and hard for the past three years to more precisely define the practice of Collaborative Law, to train practitioners in this model, to educate the public and professions about the benefits of the model and to attract new members. Since the drafting of the Strategic Plan in 2003, we have succeeded probably beyond the greatest hopes of most of us in transforming Collaborative Law Practice. The state of affairs today is vastly different than the state of affairs then. Click here to read more.

By Linda Wray, President Collaborative Law Institute

Committee Updates:

Marketing Committee:

Minnesota CLI Reaches Out To Evangelical Faith Community

September was an exciting month for the evangelical conflict resolution community. CLI members Lynette Bledsaw and Judy Johnson participated in the national Peacemaker Ministries convention, which was held in September in Bloomington, Minnesota. Presenting at the convention was Michael Klemm, attorney from Apple Valley, who has designed a conflict resolution program for his home church, Grace Church of Eden Prairie.

Conflict resolution programs have also been designed and implemented for North Heights Lutheran Church of Roseville/Arden Hills. Click here to read more.

By Judy H. Johnson

Daisy Camp offers resources and support for divorcing individuals at their next event being held on Saturday, November 4th:

"Daisy Camp" offers information on legal, financial, real estate/mortgages, career counseling, well-being topics, as well as motivational speakers from the Twin Cities. The founder, Jennifer Morris, frequently features fellow CLI members at these sessions, and is helping us to spread the word about collaborative practice. Consider recommending upcoming events to your clients. This is a wonderful educational and supportive resource for your clients as they work through their divorce. Daisy camp also offers your clients the opportunity to connect with others at a similar point in their lives. The next retreat is being held on Saturday, November 4th.

Visit www.daisycampforyou.com to learn more.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and Human Resource

The EAP/HR Outreach Subcommittee has developed a marketing plan focused on building relationships with HR Managers of local companies with a size of 50-200 employees. If anyone has contact information for HR managers or decision makers in these mid-sized companies, please let us know.

By providing a good reference, you can help us spread the word about Collaborative Law! You can contact Carol Devitt at 952-351-4663 or cdevitt@virchowkrause.com.

Website/Newsletter Committee - Call For Volunteers:

Once again, we are looking for people interested in volunteering for CLI. If you have a flair for writing we are looking for someone to help write the spotlight piece for the bimonthly newsletter. If you are interested, please contact Amy Wolff at amy@ajwfinancial.com or call 952-405-2000. This is a great opportunity to become involved with CLI!

Membership Committee:

The Membership Committee is Proud to Present:

CLI BROWN BAG LUNCH SEMINARS!!!

First Friday of Each Month Friday, November 3, 2006, 12:00 – 1:-00 Spotlight on Mental Health Professionals

Please join us at the Collaborative Alliance Executive Suites (3300 Edinborough Way, Edina, MN) for monthly seminars. RSVP to Crystal or Molly @ ca@ajwfinancial.com to reserve your seat.

Welcome new CLI members!

We are excited to announce the newest members to join the Collaborative Law team in 2006.

• Carl Arnold
• Sharon Stein-McNamara
• Daniel Van Loh
• Cynthia Miller
• Jeanne Savoie
• Kristin A. Huston
• Anne E. Tressler
• Dorothy M. Gause
• Marjorie J. Austin
• Donna M. Bennett
• Kristin A. Houston
• Elizabeth O. Eddison

We look forward to getting to know each one of you. Your contributions and abilities are much welcomed and appreciated.

NEW CLI MEMBER RECRUITMENT

We need your help! With the year’s end arriving soon, the membership committee has not yet met their new membership goal for 2006. We are asking for your help in recruiting new members to CLI MN.

Is there someone out there who you think would make a great addition to CLI? Please invite them to join the Institute TODAY! Direct them to www.collaborativelaw.org and to “Become A Member”. To sign up, they'll need to follow a few quick instructions. If you would like to have CLI extend an invitation to them to attend the upcoming “Interdisciplinary Collaborative Practice” training on November 9 th & 10 th , please contact Molly or Crystal at 952-405-2020 or email them at ca@ajwfinancial.com .

Protocols:

Protocols of practice for attorneys and mediators working together will be unveiled in informative role-play vignettes at the annual meeting. These protocols of practice are among the first in the nation to be developed! Attend the annual meeting to get a jump start in understanding the protocols and how they can be used in your Collaborative and/or Mediation practices.

The Collaborative Pulse

Musings on Collaborative Practice...

"You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear."

I was just a boy when I heard an adult family member first say those words. They lodged in my brain like a piece of buckshot, and have now come front and center in my awareness. It was an odd expression back then, and still is for that matter, though it does serve to capture the essence of things, as I’ll get to shortly.

What always has intrigued me about this expression is how crystal clear it is, notwithstanding that I have never seen a silk purse, and I know nothing more about a sow’s ear than I do about Swahili. If my adult family member had said, “You can’t make sarsaparilla out of rutabagas”, I doubt seriously that I would have that phrase rattling around inside my head tonight.

What I was thinking about before this intrusion was some of the collaborative cases that I have had the privilege of being a part of recently. I have had quite a number of collaborative law cases that have gone well over the years, and quite a few that have gone south, for that matter, as well. But I have a keener awareness of collaborative practice now than I did then, so it is more productive for me to consider what it is about these recent cases that distinguish them. Click here to read more.

By Bruce D. Peck Collaborative Practice

Minnesota Member Spotlight! Meet two of our financial professionals:

Tom Alf, Founder of Clerestory Financial Planning, CPA, CDFA Lauri Salverda, of Lenander Financial Advisory, Inc.,CFP

Tom Alf

Tom Alf lives with his wife, Karen, of thirty years in a beautiful St. Paul neighborhood near the University of St. Thomas. They are almost full time empty nesters: Tom’s daughter Liz graduated from Barnard College in New York City last May and his son David is a third year architecture student at Rice University in Houston. He likes to take the glass half full approach in reflecting on why his children moved so far from the Twin Cities, “We raised them to be strong independent people – as opposed to – they needed to get as far away from their parents as possible”. Tom is also thankful to his parents for not naming him Alfred Alf, III. Yes, it is hard enough to have one Alf in your name, and he can not imagine two.

As a member of CLI the past year and a half, he has worked as a financial neutral in collaborative cases for clients of wide ranging financial, emotional and life stages. While the client profiles constantly change, the Collaborative priorities remain constant – working to understand the family’s needs and crafting a financial approach to best support the family’s overall goals and hopefully providing a solution with as much stability for the parents and children going forward as possible. Tom adds, “I am also fortunate to office in the Collaborative Alliance office suites with a number of other like minded, talented and always engaging Collaborative professionals.”

In his role as a financial neutral, Tom draws on his own varied life experiences, his public and corporate accounting background and his current role as a fee-only financial planner who incorporates a comprehensive and fiduciary approach to his financial planning and investment management practice. As in his Collaborative financial consulting practice, his financial planning/investment management practice is centered on the client – determining their ultimate goals, helping educate, developing a long-term plan on how best to achieve their goals in a manner that is transparent and in the best interests of the client.

Lauri P. Salverda

Lauri has been working with individuals in the financial planning process for five years. Lauri's approach to financial planning is all encompassing, assisting individuals in defining and reaching their financial and life goals. She also works as a financial neutral, assisting divorcing couples working through the collaborative process. Since joining CLI, Lauri has limited her divorce work strictly to collaborative case. Her focus in her practice is family and community centric. She believes that couples and families are supported to a much higher level through the collaborative process than other types of divorce.

Prior to working with individuals in the financial advisory business, Lauri worked as a financial planner for Cities, States and non-profit entities in management and structuring of debt transactions. Lauri earned her BA in Economics from Bryn Mawr College and hold the Chartered Financial Analyst, Certified Financial Planner, and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst designations. She lives in Inver Grove Heights with her husband and four children. Outside of the office, Lauri enjoys volunteering her time at Chrysalis, Best Prep and St. Paul Academy and Summit School .

The 2006 IACP Networking and Educational Forum:

The Care and Feeding of a Revolution

The seventh annual IACP Forum was held in San Diego from October 13 th – 15 th . Ten of our own Minnesota members attended, including Stu Webb, Ron Ousky, Amy Wolff, Tonda Mattie, Linda Wray, Steve and Cheri Yasgur, Anne Towey, Leslie Kimes and Brad and Michelle Frago. Over 500 people attended, 200 of which were new to the conference. Attendees came from all over the globe: Canada , England , Scotland , Ireland , Northern Ireland , Austria and Australia.

In addition to over 47 workshops and several great general sessions, IACP also rolled out some updates on media relations. States now have the ability to use press kits that were developed by Fenton Communications for IACP, which can be customized on the state level, as well as public service announcements. If Minnesota members would like more information on these pieces, they can contact Amy Wolff at amy@ajwfinancial.com. Amy is happy to visit regional groups to share more about what IACP is doing for public education and how to use that to educate the public in their area.

The highlight of the forum included a Saturday night gala, which hosted a talent event showcasing many amazing acts put on by collaborative law practitioners from around the world, including a wonderful rock n' roll band! An equally notable event, a fund-raising campaign spearheaded by Ron Ousky, raised $60,000 within just a few hours time. Collaborative law members at the forum donated money to help advance the movement globally. If you are making year- end charitable contributions, consider donations to IACP.

Next year's forum will be held in Toronto , the 2008 forum will be in New Orleans , and in 2009 they will be coming to Minneapolis , Minnesota . The first European conference will be held next March in Austria , Vienna , and our own Stu Webb and Ron Ousky will be speaking. Be sure to ask one of this year's attendees about the wonderful experiences that were shared in San Diego . We hope you will consider attending one of these future events!