Hello Collaborative Section members!

It’s been a singular year. I tell my clients that every time we accomplish agreement in small ways, we are building a foundation for the future. They know what is possible in the future, because they’ve already accomplished it in the past.

The same is true for us. We know that the collaborative practice model will endure in the future, come what may, because it has not only endured but adapted and thrived in this past difficult year. Changing the practicalities of how we do what we do doesn’t change truth: the collaborative problem-solving model gives our clients their best opportunity for an optimal and sustainable future.

The Collaborative Law Section has accomplished much this year. Don’t miss our Section Report in the July/August edition of the Texas Bar Journal. Also, be looking for exciting news about the imminent launch of our new website, and a newly established scholarship at South Texas College of Law Houston for law students who enroll in a collaborative law course, in memorial of Ruth L. Rickard.

Please renew your membership in our section for just $25 via your My Bar Page! Here are four great reasons why your $25 dues are one of the best investments you will make in your own practice this year.

• Promote your collaborative practice – Just because you build it, they may not come. The Section provides resources and practice tips in our newsletters and programs that you can put into effect immediately to expand your practice, whether formally or ‘collaborative by stealth.’
• FREE CLE – On July 16 we are offering a FREE stellar program, Creative Negotiating to Achieve More with the Likeable Lawyers team, which will give you 2.5 hours, including 1 hour of ethics. We also produce FREE one hour CLE webinars during the year. And did I mention they are all FREE??
• Build the collaborative community – We are collaborative lawyers because we believe the best outcomes are the work of many, not lone rangers. The section offers opportunities for professional networking, visibility, and education, in civil and family law, both in the bar community and for the public.
• Invest in the future – Section activities include funding scholarships for collaborative training in law school, and exploring potential for innovation to make collaborative processes more accessible to more clients.

It has been an honor to serve as your chair this year. I hope to see you on Zoom on July 16.

Sincerely,
Laura Schlenker, Chair
Collaborative Law Section
State Bar of Texas

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Join Us for a CLE Webinar – Friday, July 16

Our long-awaited annual program from 2020 has been scheduled as a live, interactive Zoom event for 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT on Friday, July 16. This will be followed by a very brief section meeting for the introduction of the nominated incoming council for the 2021-2022 bar year.

For the CLE presentation, are pleased to finally welcome the creative legal team behind The Likeable Lawyer®, Brian Hammer and Jeffrey Stec.

Creative Negotiating to Achieve More:

How Expansive Negotiation and Lessons from Improvisation
Will Better Achieve More of Everyone’s Needs in Negotiation

Friday, July 16
10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT

FREE
2.5 hours MCLE credit, including one hour ethics

REGISTER

This interactive presentation builds on the interest-based negotiation model, enhanced and deepened by unique elements developed by The Likeable Lawyer. Brian Hammer and Jeff Stec borrow from improvisational acting and their unique Expansive Negotiation model that will increase creative input into most any negotiation, while lowering stress, and creatively expanding the pie so that everyone gets more of what they really want. This program will add to your collaborative skills, engage you with exercises to integrate the new material, and entertain, inspire and leave you with new tools to facilitate getting to more expansive solutions whenever you negotiate.

Officer and Council Nominations for 2021-2022 
Section Annual Meeting and Elections – July 21

The section’s Annual Meeting and elections will be held via email survey on Wednesday, July 21.

That morning, you will receive another email containing a link to cast your vote (you will have 24 hours to do so) based on the section’s proposed slate of officers and council members, listed below.

The Nominating Committee is pleased to present the following slate of nominees to be elected to the 2021-2022 Collaborative Law Section Council: 

OFFICERS
Chair: Jill Lowe*
Vice Chair: Chris Farish
Vice Chair, Family: Cindi Barella Graham
Vice Chair, Civil: Anne Shuttee
Secretary: Dianne Carlson
Treasurer: Constance Mims

* Per the section’s bylaws, current Chair Laura Schlenker automatically ascends to the position of immediate past chair for the 2021-2022 bar year. Due to the passing of our 2020-2021 Vice Chair Ruth Rickard, who would have automatically ascended to chair, our section Secretary Jill Lowe has been nominated as chair.

COUNCIL
Term Expires 2024
Richard Shannon

 The voting window will begin at 8 a.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 21 and close at 8 a.m. CDT Thursday, July 22.

Only current section members in good standing may vote. Proxy votes will not be accepted and duplicated votes will be discarded.

Hello Collaborative Section members,

This 2020-2021 bar year was the year no one expected, for obvious reasons. But the unexpected challenges also came with unlooked for benefits, at least in my own practice. This was the year many of us became technologically nimble. Who knew that our working vocabulary would be permanently altered by one word previously associated with imaginary superheroes, Zoom??

It was the year we had to become creative problem-solvers ourselves, before we could assist our clients to do the same. The forced re-evaluation of “I do it that way because this is what we do” has led many of us to make permanent changes in our office space, our interaction with clients, our methods of networking. For many professionals and clients, the collaborative process became more accessible when physical presence was no longer a requirement.

And now this bar year is almost at an end. It is time to choose next year’s section leaders. Are you interested? I can’t make any guarantees about what to expect, but I can assure you that you will not find a better collaborative team with whom to walk, and lead, into the unexpected.

Hoping 2021 brings expansion to your world!

Sincerely,
Laura Schlenker, Chair
Collaborative Law Section State Bar of Texas

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Nominations are OPEN!

We are accepting nominations and applicants for the 2021-2022 Collaborative Law Section Council!

This is not the time to be shy! If you are interested in building your collaborative law practice, have a passion for making it the preferred method of dispute resolution in Texas, and are willing to contribute a few hours a month to your colleagues, then raise your hand! Please send your email of interest, or nomination of a colleague, to the CL Section Chair, Laura Schlenker. Please include a brief description of collaborative training and/or practice areas

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CL/ADR Innovations Workgroup

The Collaborative Law Section is pleased to announce the creation of a new section workgroup as a section project. The group’s working name is: CL/ADR Innovations Workgroup.

The group’s working vision statement is:

Vision: Design enhancements to the collaborative law/alternative dispute resolution practice models to make them:

(1) more accessible to a broad range of civil law disputants (family and non-family and lower income groups); and
(2) more attractive free-market methods of conflict resolution when compared to civil litigation.

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Save the Date! Valuable and Free CLE!

Our long-awaited Annual Program from 2020 has been scheduled as a live, interactive Zoom event for 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CDT on July 16, followed by a very brief section meeting for elections.

We are pleased to finally welcome the creative legal team behind The Likeable Lawyer®, Brian Hammer and Jeffrey Stec. The program is entitled:

Creative Negotiating to Achieve More: How Expansive Negotiation and Lessons from Improvisation Will Better Achieve More of Everyone’s Needs in Negotiation

(2.5 hours MCLE credit, including one hour ethics)

This interactive presentation builds on the interest-based negotiation model, enhanced and deepened by unique elements developed by The Likeable Lawyer. Brian Hammer and Jeff Stec borrow from improvisational acting and their unique Expansive Negotiation model that will increase creative input into most any negotiation, while lowering stress, and creatively expanding the pie so that everyone gets more of what they really want.

This program will add to your collaborative skills, engage you with exercises to integrate the new material, and entertain, inspire and leave you with new tools to facilitate getting to more expansive solutions whenever you negotiate. Block out your calendar, and watch your email for registration information.

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Section Website Update

Finally, we are delighted to announce that we are deep in the process of building a better website! Tim Crouch and The Crouch Group are creating a new, more functional and informative website that we plan to launch this summer.

We would value your feedback. What do you like, or dislike, about the existing website? How would you plan to utilize an improved section website? Are there any functions or types of information that you would particularly like to see included?

Please send your feedback and suggestions to our CL Section Secretary, Jill Lowe.

Hello collaborative professionals!

First, a public service announcement – if you practice family law, be sure that you note and comply with the changes in the rules governing discovery, including required disclosures during the first 30 days without waiting for a request, and a new window for discovery requests.

Oh wait – there’s no discovery in the collaborative law process! I am intrigued that the litigation community is realizing that certain basic information just should be exchanged, period. And you can certainly get the same information through discovery or through the collaborative process. But our clients benefit from being released from arbitrary calendar deadlines and fights over wording, instead having the ability to mutually set the pace that works for them, in a safe, respectful, and secure interactive process. Yet another gift that the collaborative process gives our clients is the removal of unnecessary stressors, so that they can focus on what’s truly important.

In this issue, we too come bearing gifts!

• FREE CLE – our first ever CL Section Webinar at noon CDT, Wednesday, February 24 titled: 50 Ways to Use Your Collaborative Skills In and Out of the Process, by Melinda Eitzen. Use the registration link below.
• A conversation with CL Section board member Cindi Barela Graham – Drink the Kool-Aid. Cindi tells you about her challenges in getting a collaborative practice going, and her best tips on helping it to thrive.
• Information on the 14th Annual Collaborative Law Course, presented virtually on March 4-5. Have you registered yet? If not, use the registration link below and join us!

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The Passing of our Beloved Ruth L. Rickard

Finally, we are very sad to tell you that our section vice chair, and a long-time member of the civil collaborative community in Texas, Ruth Louise Rickard, passed away late last year following a lengthy illness.

All of us in the Collaborative Law Section, whether you knew her personally or not, have benefitted from her vision and leadership in the collaborative world.

Please continue reading below for a memorial tribute to Ruth, and a reprint of a special article that Ruth published in 2008, Authentic Lawyering: Engaging your Head and Your Heart.

We hope that these resources help equip and inspire you to make 2021 your best collaborative year yet!

Sincerely,
Laura R. Schlenker, Chair
Collaborative Law Section State Bar of Texas

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Collaborative Law Section CLE Webinar
50 Ways to Use Your Collaborative Skills, In and Outside of the Process

Wednesday, February 24
Noon – 1 p.m. CST
1 hour MCLE credit
FREE for section members

REGISTER

Speaker: Melinda H. Eitzen

Presenting our first ever webinar, free for section members! If you have ever attended a CLE by Melinda Eitzen, you know this will be a don’t miss event. Melinda is a master credentialed collaborative divorce attorney and trainer, and is also a gifted presenter. We are proud to offer you this member benefit. Melinda will discuss formal collaborative practice under the Collaborative Family Law Act and by contract in a civil setting, the skills we acquire through collaborative training and practice, and how they can be applied in other areas of our practice including litigation and mediation.

Drink the Kool-Aid

A Conversation with CL Section board member Cindi Barela Graham

Didn’t everyone grow up drinking Kool-Aid? And, the real kind, the kind that came in the smaller skinny packet and to which you added your own sugar? Maybe if you were rich you got the kind with the sugar already in it. Being a military brat, our packets were always the skinny, flat ones. But we drank it all the same.

That’s what happened when I heard about and went to the first training for Collaborative Divorce. I drank the Kool-Aid. And, for those of you in the big city, you are likely bored already by this, but let me tell you, it ain’t easy practicing Collaborative Divorce in the Panhandle of Texas where I practice.

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14th Annual Course
Collaborative Law: Building Better Collaboration Webcast

Co-sponsored by 

Collaborative Law Section of the State Bar of Texas
and
Collaborative Divorce Texas 

Thursday, March 4 – Friday, March 5
Thursday: 8:55 a.m. – 5 p.m. CST
Friday: 7:30 a.m. – 2:45 p.m. CST

Registration
Early Bird Registration (ends March 5): $445
Regular Registration (after March 5): $495 

REGISTER
MORE INFO

Collaborative Law Section and Collaborative Divorce Texas Group members: save $25! Texas Bar College and Texas Paralegal Division members: save $25! Attorneys licensed five years or fewer: 50% off registration price!

This course includes a live chat feature that will allow you to interact with participating speakers and other registrants!

Can’t attend on March 4-5? Register now and view the recording at your convenience. All webcasts are archived after the broadcast and available to review as many times as you like! This webcast will be available for playback on March 30 and the program is MCLE accredited through February 28, 2022.

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In Memoriam: Ruth Louise Rickard

1952 – 2020

By: Anne Shuttee and Laura Schlenker

Our Collaborative Law Section vice chair, our colleague, our dear friend, Ruth Louise Rickard, was born on April 20, 1952, and grew up in the farming community of Rolfe, Iowa. After graduating as valedictorian of her class, she studied internationally, and earned a B.S. degree from Iowa State University in 1974 in psychology and linguistics.

In the years following, Ruth worked in a variety of fields, with the common element being exposure to the role of legal systems in the protection of the public. In the mid-1980s she decided to make a career change.

Read full tribute >>>

Authentic Lawyering: Engaging Your Head and Your Heart

By Ruth Louise Rickard

Note: This article is a re-print of the original that appeared in the June 2008 edition of the Michigan Bar Journal

I have been striving to be a “holistic lawyer” for years. I couldn’t quite articulate that until I discovered the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers (IAHL), stumbling on its annual conference in 2004 almost by accident. The room was filled with smart, accomplished, and fun-loving lawyers, who shared the following vision:

The IAHL envisions a world where lawyers are valued as healers, helpers, counselors, problem-solvers, and peacemakers. Conflicts are seen as opportunities for growth. Lawyers model balanced lives and are respected for their contributions to the greater good.

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