Contrary to popular belief, Collaborative Practice is neither more expensive nor does it take longer than the traditional divorce process. In a multiyear survey conducted by the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals between 2006-2010, the average total fees paid to the professionals involved in collaborative cases was under $25,000. Almost 80% of collaborative cases were resolved within one year.

Collaborative Practice for prenups is also a vastly different model from the traditional prenup process. It is centered on legal education and planning, followed by four-way meetings to discuss whether there is a need to deviate from the default provided under the law. If so, the team discusses what the terms should be before anyone starts drafting.

Topics
– General understanding of the Collaborative Practice process for conflict resolution
– Collaborative divorces
– Collaborative premarital planning and agreements
– Ethics in Collaborative Practice

Speakers: Tanya Prioste, Liat Sadler and Charles Spiegel
Moderator: Billie-Jean Lee

Tanya Prioste
Tanya Prioste: Family law attorney Tanya E. Prioste is a partner at Lakin Spears, LLP in Palo Alto and a Certified Family Law Specialist, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. She is a skilled family law attorney, mediator, and Collaborative Divorce lawyer.  In addition to divorce work, Tanya negotiates and creates premarital, postmarital, and transmutation agreements.  Her practice is devoted exclusively to family law, focused on problem-solving and helping families and individuals move into their next life chapter with respect and dignity.

Tanya is rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale Hubbell and has been selected by her peers as among the top family lawyers in Northern California every year since 2004.
Tanya has co-authored several articles on topics including international custody move-aways, child support, reimbursements, imputation of income in support cases, disclosure obligations, and attorney’s fees and sanctions.

Tanya has presented on numerous family law topics, including premarital agreements, reimbursement rights, transmutation and separate property contribution issues, and fiduciary duties.

Liat Sadler
Liat Weingart Sadler has been certified by the California State Bar as a specialist in family law and is a member of the International Association of Collaborative Professionals. She earned her Bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Michigan. She earned her Master’s degree from the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Ms. Sadler was honored with a full scholarship to attend law school at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, where she graduated cum laude. During law school, worked for a federal judge, a federal Special Master and the New Jersey State Attorney’s Office.

Ms. Sadler is trained in Collaborative Divorce, a modality which helps the parties stay at the negotiating table and come to agreements that will benefit themselves and their children. She is also a trained mediator. She also helps her clients negotiate their premarital agreements using Collaborative Practice.

Ms. Sadler has served on the Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco as the committee’s Education Chair. She coordinated trainings for family lawyers in San Francisco, organizing seminars on a wide range of topics. She has taught family law trial lawyers about family law appeals through the Bar Association of San Francisco and the State Bar of California.

Ms. Sadler’s practice focuses on divorce, property division, characterization of assets and business interests, child custody, and child and spousal support. She has successfully litigated characterization and division of equity compensation, business and art valuations and move-away child custody cases. Ms. Sadler volunteers with the San Francisco Superior Court as Volunteer Attorney of the Day, assisting the court in resolving cases. She regularly represents clients at all stages in divorce, child custody and support proceedings, working alongside collaborative counsel for the benefits of the parties and children, mediating cases, consulting with clients who are going through a mediated divorce and litigating matters that cannot be resolved consensually.

Charles Spiegel
Charlie Spiegel’s Bay Area based legal practice is exclusively limited to consensual resolution of divorce and custody mediation, pre and post nuptial planning and agreements, adoption and surrogacy.  Charlie sees clients in his main office in SF’s Noe Valley, Civic Center, Montclair in Oakland, and Orinda; and where appropriate online whenever a California case has participants. 

Charlie is one of the co-writers of Divorce Options, a free or low cost online California statewide public education program about divorce process choices, and continues to be actively involved with overseeing and promoting that program. Charlie currently serves as Co-Chair of Collaborative Practice- San Francisco, his second term on this professional board.  Previously Charlie served as Co-Chair of the National Board of LambdaLegal.org, and was a founding Executive Director of Our Family, the Bay Area’s LGBT family organization. Charlie also served on the Board of Directors for KidsTurn (now a program of Safe and Sound), Collaborative Practice California, and is a member of the National Family Law Institute and Collaborative Practice East Bay.

Charlie had 25 years of wide experience in real estate in two large law firms after graduating New York University School of Law with honors, He received a Fammy Award from San Francisco’s Jewish Family & Children’s Services in 2009, and in 2017 the Our Family Award for his advocacy for families. He has lived in the SF Bay Area since just before the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, and through his own family’s divorce.