REPRESENTATION:

Karen limits her practice so that she rarely, if ever, has more than fifteen active cases at any one time.  Her litigation priorities are (a) to understand and achieve a client's reasonable goals by judicial means if settlement fails; (b) to be as responsive to clients as possible through BlackBerry and cell phone access outside regular office hours; (c) to provide support for positive post-divorce relationships.

MEDIATION/COLLABORATIVE DIVORCE:

Karen is a well trained and experienced neutral. She has 60 hours of mediation training, including training with the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and the Harvard Program on Negotiation. She has served as a neutral in various family law cases involving property distribution, child custody, alimony, and business valuation. She is available to serve as a mediator and to assist clients in reaching a resolution of their differences on their own terms and without suffering the indignity and expense of protracted litigation.

She is also trained in Collaborative Law, and is available as a collaborative law coach. For more information about the collaborative law process, please explore the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council website at: www.massclc.org.

COUNSELING AND COACHING:

While Karen focuses on traditional representation, she has a keen interest in counseling and coaching clients through the divorce process or after a case concludes, to assist clients with cooperative parenting, blending new families, negotiating prenuptial agreements, and sharing her vast experience in how to successfully navigate the aftermath of family dissolution.  In 2007, Karen began coursework for a Master's degree in Social Work at Boston University, and intends to pursue that work on a part-time basis in order to strengthen her understanding of family dynamics.  Karen is not a therapist. She does not attempt to cure mental illness. She works with emotionally and mentally healthy people who are either in a short-term crisis caused by a divorce, or are dealing with the aftermath, whether it be co-parenting problems or financial issues, or people hoping to learn how to avoid the same financial and behavioral mistakes in a new relationship. She also advises and coaches clients in blending new families.