Meeting Stu Webb: Founding Father Of the Global Collaborative Law Movement
As a barrister of 17 years’ litigation practice mainly in the field of family and children law, I fully understand that the adversarial process does not work for families. Not only does it not work but the process is, in my view, mentally and emotionally damaging for all involved, particularly for children. Children do not belong in court rooms. Children should not be subject to interviews with well-meaning social workers at a time when their stability and life as they knew it has been rocked to the core and they are suffering the pressures of split loyalties. "It isn’t right. There has to be another way". This was my thinking practically from the start of my family litigation practice. My aim in every case was to keep families and children away from court rooms as much as possible; to encourage the use of my Holistic Well-being Network to explore (really and truly explore) the possibility of reconciliation and, if this was not possible, for my clients to learn tools to peacefully co-parent moving forward.
In 2013, I opened Amber Law as Gibraltar’s first Holistic Law Firm. At the time, I had not heard of Collaborative Law - the only areas I knew of under the Therapeutic Justice umbrella were Family Group Conferencing and Restorative Justice. I had created a Holistic Model of legal practice since I started practising law and continued this with success with many of my clients. I first came across Collaborative Law in 2016 whilst in London. I was researching in Waterstones Bookshop and came across a book by Neil Denny called 'The Collaborative Law Companion.’
In 2019, I met J. Kim Wright whilst she was in London and she kindly made me aware of and connected me with a number of 'trail blazers' in the Global Integrative Law Movement of lawyers as Healers/Peacemakers/Leaders. That list included American family lawyer Stu Webb and his transformative model of Collaborative Law. I was and continue to be in awe of the global healing work being done by him and so many other collaborative lawyers!
I was introduced to Stu and, much to my delight, we are still in contact and I continue learning and growing from his shared knowledge, experience and insights.
In 1990, after 26 years of practicing divorce law, Stu was ready to quit. Much like many of us family and children litigators he was worn out from the conflict, the central ingredient in court-based adversarial divorces. "It wasn't so much fun practicing law in an adversarial way," he recalls. "I hated my litigation practice."
Stu understood that not only was he, as a litigator, burned out by the mental and emotional ‘tax’ we pay by living in such hostile environments day in, day out over decades, but he clearly understood that court-based divorces were also detrimental to his clients’ and their families’ wellbeing.
His movement, like most game-changing ideas, started out with a simple idea: “he and another lawyer would work toward settlement with a divorcing couple who agreed not to go to court”. This worked and Stu continued to succeed in clients reaching out-of-court settlements.
The way the Collaborative Law Movement grew was again simple. Stu began to contact like-minded lawyers across the country to share his thoughts, his model and the results which were a win-win for lawyers and clients alike!
In only a few short years, Stu's model was extended outside the field of law and an interdisciplinary model took root in San Francisco. The non-litigious lawyers found support in the field of mental health to help families as divorce coaches and child specialists. Psychologists Peggy Thompson and Rodney Nurse and social worker Nancy Ross were at the forefront of this new development. Collaborative Practice teams soon included financial specialists too.
If you are a like-minded family and children lawyer, why not re-train as a Collaborative Lawyer? This revolutionary, no-court process of Collaborative Divorce is now practiced in over 23 countries worldwide with countries adapting their legal justice systems and corresponding social justice policies to accommodate the use of Stu’s Collaborative Law Model.
Be part of the Global Integrative Law Movement, be a change agent, promote peace and healing for your clients and their children throughout and after the separation/divorce process… because we all, especially our children, deserve to feel safe. We all deserve to be happy and not just to survive but to thrive in life, even during and after separation and divorce.