The reputation of a law firm or some other professional business is valuable to its individual owners to the extent that it assures continued substan- tial earnings in the future. It cannot be separately sold or pledged by the individual owners. The goodwill or reputation of such a business accrues to the benefit of the owners only through increased salary. There is a disturbing inequity of compelling a professional practitioner to pay a spouse a share of intangible assets at a judicially determined value that could not be realized by a sale or another method of liquidating value. The Holbrook opinion is one of the most often cited cases involving professional goodwill.
Exceptions do apply to the net asset value divorce rule.
The clinic employs eight people providing CT scans and MRI examinations. In other words, the clinic was found to have separate goodwill that was not directly related to the husband's professional or personal goodwill. The wife was not a party to the agreement and had not signed it. The husband was a general surgeon and part owner of the Jackson Clinic, a professional multi-specialty medical association. In 1996, it employed approximately 108 physicians and 535 non-physician employees at 18 locations.