The Collaborative Law Process
       

Collaborative Law is a process that seeks to assist the parties in resolving their cases through interest-based negotiation rather than position-based negotiation without the trauma or expense of “going to court.” The process involves attorneys, mental health professionals and financial professionals working with the clients in face-to-face meetings.  These meetings explore the parties’ interests, goals and options with a civilized approach designed to reach a “win-win” resolution for the parties. 
The Collaborative Law process is an excellent tool for resolving divorce and family law cases, as well as civil cases including guardianship and probate.  New Paradigm Collaborative Law Training events are designed for those new to the collaborative process as well as experienced collaborative professionals. 

Basic Collaborative Training

This training presents basic interdisciplinary team training that will include family law and civil areas of practice along with marketing techniques for your collaborative practice.

Basic Interdisciplinary is a typically a 2-day training, with 3/4 of the first day primarily lecture, then demonstrations and role-plays for the balance of the training. Those role plays, even though they may feel awkward at first, are required by the IACP for people to say they have been trained and after we do them, attendees say they find them incredibly valuable.

The training complies with the requirements of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals Training Curriculum and the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas Basic Training Curriculum.

Contact us at 940.383.2674 for information on a customized plan for Intermediate Interdisciplinary Training.

Intermediate Collaborative Training

Intermediate Interdisciplinary is 1-2 days, depending on what the group wants. Very often, the group that has gone through the basic wants to get some experience before they are really dropped into a real case. We have found that most clients are not comfortable letting observers sit in because they are already being taxed emotionally for there to be additional professionals hearing all their private information and emotions. Therefore, at the request of some of our previous attendees, we have been developing this part of the series, which will be real time demonstrations and role plays, to enable lawyers, communications coaches, child specialists and financial professionals to feel prepared to go into cases with more confidence and the feeling that they have had some experience even if not a real case. If your group would prefer, we can combine the basic and intermediates to be a three day course with the demonstrations and role-plays in real time so that your members will feel read even after this first training to jump right into their own cases.

Contact us at 940.383.2674 for information on a customized plan for Intermediate Interdisciplinary Training.

Advanced Collaborative Training

Advanced Interdisciplinary can be one or 2 days, depending on the needs of the group. Between us, our training team has the experience of about 200 collaborative cases, which have given us many lessons that are of benefit to others so that they may not have to "re-invent the wheel." For example, this team discovered a syndrome that we commonly saw in cases where one party was a "Type-A" personality that attempted to split the other party from the team, and we have developed techniques for effectively handling that type of case. We also talk about cases that are and that are not appropriate for the collaborative law process, how to handle high conflict personalities in collaborative cases, advanced communications techniques, and advanced skills in pre-meetings, joint meetings, debriefings, and offline meetings that help "keep the train on the track," all the way to satisfactory conclusion. Our job is to not only provide clients with resolution but satisfaction with the collaborative process, and we have tools that we believe can assist practitioners in that goal.

Contact us at 940.383.2674 for information on a customized plan for Advanced Interdisciplinary Training.

Training for Legal Assistants and Paralegals

Staff Training has become very much in demand in our training requests as collaborative professionals have realized how critical it is for the staff to be trained in marketing the collaborative process from the client's very first contact with the collaborative professional's office. Collaborative Professionals are also realizing the importance of educating their staff in their supporting role in a collaborative practice, including the most efficient methods for scheduling the meetings for collaborative cases, preparing the notebooks for the team, preparing the agendas, minutes, final documents and even giving attention to the office environment and refreshment offered for a satisfactory collaborative experience for the clients.

Contact us at 940.383.2674 for information on a customized plan for Collaborative Staff Training.

New Paradigm Training is based in Denton, Texas and provides Collaborative Law training events throughout the United States and Canada for attorneys, mental health professionals, financial professionals and their staff.