An interview with Janeen Kerper, professor of law at California Western School of law, and academic director of the school's McGill Center for Creative Problem Solving. Ms. Kerper was interviewed by Steven Keeva . An interview with Robert Rack, chief circuit mediator for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Rack was interviewed by Steven Keeva. Near unanimity in reports of enjoyment among lawyers who have tried it.
Businesses are eager for it.
The participation agreement sets out the rules and mechanisms for this practice, including how to confidentially share relevant information, for protecting clients' legal interests while the collaborative law process proceeds, and how to deal with discovery needs. The twist and the teeth to this program is that if a party changes his or her mind and wants to litigate, all the collaborative lawyers must resign from the case and the parties must hire new, litigation counsel. The collaborative lawyers will assist in transferring the case to the new lawyers, but neither the collaborative lawyers nor their firms can be paid for any time spent after a brief transition period. One of the first questions lawyers ask is whether this practice is ethical. This has been researched several times and the answer pretty clearly is yes.