After 28 years of practice, a couple of ideas resonate and prove true over and over. One is that couples are much more satisfied with the terms of their divorce if they decide the issues for themselves rather than having a judge determine the outcome. This notion of “owning it” has led me to want to empower clients – to educate and empathize and give folks the skills to decide their own fate. This has been actualized in the expansion of the practice into collaborative law and mediation.

I have tried many cases and the emotional and financial toll does not always equate with a superior result. The decision a judge makes rarely reflects creative thinking or the personalities of the litigants. In the collaborative process however, clients are encouraged to seek the result that really suits the family without the constraints of litigation. Mediation, which can be part of the collaborative method (or not), also promotes the parties self determination. I have completed training as a collaborative lawyer and as a mediator and am excited to add these services to the practice.

Now for the “stats”: I passed the NJ Bar in 1983 and completed a judicial clerkship in Union County the following year. I then became an associate at a law firm in Princeton before joining the Attorney General’s office in 1987. After a great deal of jury trial work there, I came back to private practice and have concentrated on family law ever since.

I currently teach the Family Law for Paralegals course at Mercer County Community College as well as courses for the NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education.

Over the years I have served as the Chair for the District VII Ethics Committee and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the real estate section of the Mercer County Bar Association. I am a member of the Mid Jersey Collaborative Law Alliance, the NJ Association of Professional Mediators, the Mercer County Bar Association and the NJ State Bar Association.