Kim Davidson and Hal Bartholomew

The genesis of what is now known as CP Cal began in 2003 with a group of folks in Northern California, spearheaded by Alan Nobler and Len Weiler, attending a get-together at Mills College with attendees from Santa Cruz up to Sacramento. They discussed participating in a regional organization centered on public education of what was then known as Collaborative Law.

Early in 2004, Alan Nobler shared what was happening in Northern California with Kim Davidson (Los Angeles) and Michelle Sullivan (San Diego) at an IACP Pubic Education Meeting in Chicago. They combined forces to explore creating a state-wide organization in California. The first organizing meeting was held in May 2004 in Southern California with key organizers from around the state attending. Out of that meeting came a commitment to organize a state-wide retreat with Liz Ferris as facilitator prior to the IACP forum that year in Boston.

Monies were raised by local groups and this retreat was held in Northern California at Green Gulch in July 2004 with approximately 20-plus representatives from various groups around the state attending as "ad hoc" representatives. Out of this came a commitment by the attendees to create a state-wide public education effort with the formal organization as a secondary goal at the time.

In March 2006, Collaborative Practice California held its first state-wide conference in Sonoma. This three-day conference drew 180 attendees including guests and sponsors. Delegates from practice groups throughout the state met to hold a "Constitutional Convention." A strategic plan was adopted and an interim executive committee was elected. Their job was to draft bylaws, clarify membership requirements, elect a permanent board of directors and plan for the second "Celebration" in Pasadena of May 2007.

At the IACP conference in San Diego in October 2006, the CP Cal delegates met and unanimously approved the bylaws as prepared by David Fink, Margaret Anderson and George Richardson. The election of the Board of Directors occurred with Hal Bartholomew (Sacramento) as the first president of the organization.

CP Cal Celebration II was held in Pasadena in May 2007. The board of directors carried over from October 2006. In 2008 at Celebration III held in Berkeley, Kim Davidson took over as president of the organization.

George Richardson followed as President in 2009 and Kathleen O'Connor in 2010.

The focus of CP Cal as a state-wide organization has been to create an awareness of Collaborative Practice through airport ads, BART ads, movie theater ads, Divorce Options Workshops and various other educational efforts. We hope you will join us April 29 - May 1, 2011 for Celebration VI in Rancho Bernardo to continue this journey!

Steve Rutlen

CP Cal is pleased to sponsor a state-wide community service program, "Divorce Options™ Workshops." The materials for these workshops, including PowerPoint presentations and advertising brochures, will be made available to CP Cal member practice groups. Each practice group is encouraged to provide a Divorce Options workshop in their community each month.

The workshop provides an invaluable service for every person facing the complexities of divorce. Many individuals contemplating divorce are not aware that they have several options available with significantly different costs -- both hard dollar cost and emotional cost. Participants learn which divorce processes are more supportive of the family and the children.

Divorce Options explains the legal, financial, family and personal issues of divorce in a logical, yet compassionate way. With the guidance of a team of legal, financial and mental health professionals, workshop participants gain a greater understanding of the confusing and overwhelming divorce process options. Divorce Options provides explanations of the differences between self representation, mediation, collaborative divorce and litigated divorce. Issues of timing, legal fees, child custody, child/spousal support and property are also discussed. A divorce financial specialist covers many of the financial issues that are present in most divorces. Topics include gathering financial information, dividing property, real estate issues and tax consequences of divorce. A mental health professional discusses the emotional aspects of divorce and the impact of divorce on children, as well as how to tell children about the divorce.

After attending the Divorce Options Workshops, participants have commented that they feel empowered to make a more informed decision regarding their divorce process choice. Divorce Options Workshops are held throughout California. The cost for the 4-hour workshop is only $45.00. Dates and locations of Divorce Options Workshops can be found at www.CPCal.org. If your group is not yet providing Divorce Options workshops in your community, please discuss this with your group leadership and volunteer to participate.

Leslee Newman and Len Weiler, Co-Chairs

Divorce Options Workshops:  Several practice groups have started or are in the process of starting a monthly public education workshop entitled Divorce Options. The purpose of the program is to educate potential clients about their options for divorce, including litigation, self-representation, collaborative divorce, and mediation. The prototype for this four-hour program was developed by the Sacramento group. Last fall, NorCal PEC made it a region-wide priority to develop these programs throughout the Bay Area. Within the next couple of months there will be four or five Divorce Options workshops offered throughout the Bay Area. We encourage your practice group to start presenting "Divorce Options" Workshops in your local area, too.

A brochure and PowerPoint presentation, developed by the aforementioned Steve Rutlen and the Sacramento Collaborative Practice Group, is available from CP Cal for use by every CP Cal member group. We provide the program, so all you need to do is book a venue, publicize it, and present it. In some areas around the State, the workshop is being conducted at a community college, a venue that may give the program additional credibility. Local policies will differ, though some community colleges furnish the classroom at no charge or modest charge. For more information, contact Steve for protocols and instructions and, soon, brochures (steve@srutlencpa.com)

How to Get a Divorce Videos:  Also, to educate clients about collaborative divorce, tune in to the "How to Get A Divorce" television series of five half-hour programs, divided into segments of ten minutes or less to fit youtube.com guidelines. The series features the options of out-of-court divorce, the coach, the child specialist, the financial neutral, and the lawyer making a peaceful transition. The segments, produced in Southern California by Leslee Newman, direct clients to the CP Cal website, and can be used to educate potential clients about the collaborative process. Check out the following youtube.com link: www.youtube.com/user/collaborativedivorce

Take a Professional to Lunch:  NorCal PEC coordinated a campaign in January and February for "retail" outreach aimed at educating legal, financial and mental health professionals about collaborative practice. Entitled "Take a Professional to Lunch Month," the campaign began in January. As the name implies, collaborative practitioners throughout the Bay Area were encouraged to take another professional to lunch to talk about our dispute resolution model, and how/why it works. Some practice groups offered prizes to members who participated. The net result was that over 100 professionals, who previously knew little or nothing about collaborative divorce, were exposed to the collaborative model (and got a free lunch to boot). The benefit of doing this in a coordinated fashion throughout the region, of course, is that some level of synergy is created. Additional benefits to the collaborative participants included networking opportunities and a chance to get out of the office. This was so successful that we plan to run a second Take a Professional to Lunch campaign later this year.

"Free" Radio and TV Advertising:  NorCal PEC has another project aimed at getting collaborative practice some "free" on-the-air advertising. In February, NorCal PEC members and other collaborative practitioners volunteered to answer the phones at the Bay Area NPR station (KQED-FM) pledge drive during the morning commute. In addition to networking with station personnel and other volunteers, the effort produced four plugs for collaborative practice and CP Cal. KQED is the second or third most listened-to radio station in the region. We will be following that up with an appearance in May for the KQED-TV pledge drive, and even have special CP Cal T-shirts prepared for the occasion. Again, collaborative practice will receive plugs in exchange for our volunteers' participation. If you are interested in volunteering for this project, please contact Vera Hartford at vkh@bhp-law.com or Suzan Barrie Aiken at sbaiken@earthlink.net.

New Print Ad Available:  The CP Cal PEC Print Ad Committee has developed a third print ad to develop interest in collaborative practice. The headline of this ad is Collaborative Divorce Means: A Confidential and Safe Place to Find Solutions. The ad shows a picture of a collaborating couple and their counsel (or perhaps their coaches) in a conference room working on solutions. This ad joins the other two ads which we produced in the fall, one with the headline Collaborative Divorce Means: Children at the Center NOT in the Middle (with a wonderful photo of a child balancing mom and dad on his right and left hands) and the other headlined Collaborative Divorce Means: Never Having to Say, "See You in Court," accompanied by a picture of a somewhat intimidating judge with gavel. All of the ads end with our tagline: Collaborative Practice: A Different Better Way to Divorce, and a reference to the CP Cal website. These ads have already formed the basis of the movie theater advertisement, and are starting to be used in magazine ads placed by collaborative practice groups. They would also work great as billboards, airport or public transit poster ads, etc.

Ad Protocols:  We are also promulgating protocols for the use of these ads and for our tagline. Essentially, the protocols will provide that any of these ads are available free of charge to any collaborative practice group that is a member of CP Cal. There will be a modest charge if the practice group prefers to refer to its own website, rather than the CP Cal website. The protocols also provide for use of the above tagline whenever possible on all CP Cal public education materials, mailings, press releases, etc. Because the use of the word "Better" in the tagline feels uncomfortable or inappropriate to some members, practice groups will have the option to use the alternative, Collaborative Practice: A Different Way to Divorce, instead. The official protocols will be promulgated upon approval by the CP Cal Board, probably within the next few weeks.

Marketing 101 Refresher:  NorCal PEC is also coordinating the production of off-the-shelf presentations aimed at reminding and/or teaching collaborative practitioners how to market themselves, their individual practices and collaborative practice generally. This is an effort to deal with the problem all of us have been facing during these recessionary times: how to develop more collaborative business. Catherine Conner is spearheading this effort, developing talking points, a PowerPoint presentation, and other materials. Marketing 101 will be made available to CP Cal's member practice groups to present to their members. We anticipate that presentation of this program will not only be educational and productive, but that it will generate renewed enthusiasm among practitioners for what we are doing.

AFCC and CAMFT conferences: In February, CP Cal had a table at the California AFCC annual conference in San Francisco -- thanks to the efforts and presence of our president Kathleen O'Connor. We will be doing the same at the upcoming CAMFT annual conference at the San Francisco airport Marriott from May 12-15. Jay Bray is coordinating that effort, and if you are interested in volunteering, please contact him at jayebray@earthlink.net.

David Kuroda, LCSW

The local bar association had invited me to be a luncheon speaker. I'm sure it was because the lawyers wanted to find out who the new mediator in town was, and not because of my fame and reputation. I was too new to have much of either. After my talk, I remember the family law chair asking me a question, "Mr. Kuroda, what do you find difficult in your role as child custody mediator?"'

My answer was perhaps too honest. After all, I had only been on the job for six months. "When I hear how the children are being affected and how the parents want the fighting to end, I want to pick up the phone and call the attorneys to tell them the damage the conflict is causing."

The lawyer shouted from the back of the room, "If you did that, Mr. Kuroda, I would sue you. Mediation is confidential." I wondered why I had agreed to speak to a group of attorneys. It was the largest group of attorneys I had ever been with in my career.

After a long pause I said "I wouldn't do that; I only said I would want to make the call. I know mediation is confidential."

That was years ago. Now, when people ask me "David, are you an attorney?" I take that as a compliment. Most mental health professionals dread the phone call or letter from the attorney. It's the phone call they return last. Since adding collaborative divorce to my practice, I welcome receiving phone calls from lawyers. It's their phone calls I return first. It makes me happy; it's exciting.

In addition to the increased income from collaborative practice referrals, there are significant benefits to my practice, my mood and even my health. I belong to two practice groups, "A Better Divorce" (A group of collaborative law professionals in the South Bay) and "LAWCDP" (Los Angeles Westside Collaborative Divorce Professionals). I look forward to our monthly meetings and the chance to "break bread" with attorneys and financial professionals, and of course my mental health colleagues. Unlike my previous positions in the court, I can choose the people I want to work with.

When I speak to my colleagues about working with "nice" attorneys, there are smiles and laughter suggesting derision. Collaborative Practice California has afforded me the opportunity to meet collaborative colleagues throughout the state.

During one of the few times I had to testify in court, the attorney did his best to discredit me and my work. He challenged my experience; he tried to show the judge I didn't know what I was doing. After that experience, I've come to appreciate collaborative practice even more. Attorneys value my work; they respect what I bring to the process; they commend me. I like that.

I was invited to be on the California State Bar Family Law Section, Consensual Dispute Resolution Standing Committee (South). Unlike those attorneys who are clamoring to put the "law" back into family law, we are trying to put "family" back into family law. There is a growing movement in the legal, financial and mental health professions to help families transition through divorce in better ways.

No-fault divorce in the early '70s was the biggest change in family law. Mandatory mediation was the second biggest change, the early '80s. I view collaborative divorce as the third biggest change in divorce law. There are many benefits for the families choosing collaborative practice as a "better way" of getting divorced. There are also important benefits for collaborative professionals; I am but one of many.