If you know anyone wondering about the basics of collaborative law, a great article just came out in the San Antonio Express-News, featuring Kim Munsinger and Harry Munsinger explaining how collaborative law works, and how, as the title of the article suggests, it can help to “take the fight out of divorce.”
Kim Munsinger isn’t just a practicing collaborative lawyer — as readers of this blog know, she’s recently edited the excellent Collaborative Law: Start to Finish from TexasBarBooks, designed for family lawyers who want to learn more about the collaborative law process.
The article includes some examples of cases that they’ve worked on over the years, detailing successes that they’ve had in helping couples come to creative solutions helping the couple and their children navigate their post-divorce lives. These paragraphs in particular highlight that work:
“I had a recent case where both the couple traveled for work,” Harry Munsinger said. “We worked out a 50-50 custody arrangement where the children were with one parent for a week, then the other for a week. The other parent would travel during the week they didn’t have the kids.
“And there was no child support involved. Each parent made a decent income, so each supported the kids when they were with them. It worked out very well for them.”
“When it’s done in good spirit, there is even generosity,” Kim Munsinger said. “I just had a case where it was very important to the adult children that their mom was going to be (financially) OK, and their dad stepped up to the plate. When things start working that way, it’s a positive, virtuous cycle rather than the negative.”
The article, of course, also talks about the role that other team members can have in the collaborative law process, such as financial neutrals and mental health professionals, but it focuses on the excellent legal perspective that the Munsingers bring to the table.
