Building a Successful Collaborative Family Law Practice

Forrest (Woody) Mosten has been in private mediation practice in Los Angeles since 1979 and teaches mediation as Adjunct Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. He trains professionals in mediation from basic to advanced courses and is in constant demand worldwide as a conference keynote speaker and expert witness on mediation. Mr. Mosten serves as a mediator in the following practice areas: Business and Partnerships, Real Estate, Commercial Litigation, Family Law, and other disputes involving complex legal and financial issues and high conflict of the parties. Mr. Mosten is the author of four books and numerous articles on mediation and other dispute resolution topics. Mr. Mosten was a 2009 ABA Frank Sander Co-Lecturer and has been recipient of the ABA Lawyer as Problem Solver Award, ABA Lifetime Legal Access Award, Los Angeles County Bar Louis M. Brown Conflict Prevention Award, and was named by the Southern California Mediation Association as Peacemaker of the Year. He is the founding Chair of the Beverly Hills Bar Dispute Resolution Section and has received two major awards for his work in mediation from that organization. Mr. Mosten can be reached at mostenmediation.com Adam B. Cordover is a Collaborative Attorney, Collaborative Trainer, and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Law Mediator who believes that family disputes should be resolved respectfully in private conference rooms, not in a hostile public courtroom environment. This perspective on approaching family law stems back to his experience studying for his masters in International Affairs in Washington, D.C., and abroad. Adam had the rare opportunity to work closely with ambassadors and diplomats from war-torn regions around the world. He traveled the globe, learning from diplomatic leaders as they applied dispute resolution techniques to tackle seemingly impossible conflicts. It dawned on him: If these techniques can work in the complex world of International Relations, why not Domestic Relations and Family Law? This realization led Adam to form Family Diplomacy, a Collaborative law firm dedicated to bringing a more peacemaking approach to family law. A thought leader in the international collaborative law community, Adam is a founder of Tampa Bay Collaborative Trainers with whom he trains attorneys, psychologists, licensed mental health counselors, accountants, and financial planners to become collaborative professionals. He also is a founding member of the Peacemaking Practice Trainers, with whom he teaches family law professionals how to make a living at peacemaking. Further, Adam is co-author with Forrest (Woody) Mosten of an upcoming American Bar Association on Building A Successful Collaborative Law Practice. He was collaborative attorney and appellate attorney in Shaw v. Shaw, the first divorce matter in Florida to challenge the state's Defense of Marriage Act and constitutional amendment banning recognition of same-sex marriage. Adam was also a collaborative attorney in Nelson and Nelson, the first pro bono collaborative divorce completed in Florida. Adam successfully spearheaded an effort of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit to draft an administrative order safeguarding the principles of Collaborative Family Law (just the fourth such administrative order in Florida). Adam has been featured in or interviewed about Collaborative Divorce by the Tampa Bay Times, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Miami Herald, Tampa Bay Business Journal, the Florida Bar News, Florida Trend Magazine, NBC 8, Fox 13, Bay News 9, ABC Action News, The World of Collaborative Practice Magazine, iHeart Media, Spirit FM 90.5, and Money Talk 1010 AM. He regularly speaks at professional and civic organizations locally and internationally regarding the Collaborative Process.