The ethics of collaborative law

By Kristen M. Blankley

Despite the growing practice over the last three decades, mystery and misconception still swirl around the collaborative law (CL) practice. At its core, CL is a negotiation-only practice that allows the parties and their lawyers to put all of their attention into resolving a dispute collaboratively, openly, and without resort to legal processes – such as court pleadings and formal discovery. To accomplish this goal, CL utilizes a disqualification agreement under which the “parties agree in advance that their lawyers are disqualified from further representing parties by appearing before a tribunal if the collaborative law process ends without complete agreement.” Read more