Portland and Beaverton Divorce Mediator

Be Sure Your Divorce Mediator Has a Law Degree. No Exceptions.

Family and Divorce Mediation is a Legal Matter.

Not Having a Law Degree Should Be an Automatic Disqualifier.

A law degree is essential, not just helpful, for a divorce mediator.

A Juris Doctor degree prepares an attorney or mediator to read, write, and comprehend the specialized language of the law. Holding a law degree is essential, not just preferable, for a family law mediator.

There are people -- even in Portland -- who hold themselves out as "divorce mediators" without having attended law school.

At best, that practice is irresponsible. At worst, it is dangerous. It is unfair to clients and will result in a substandard process with much left out.

Among many other mediators' websites, the one with the most errors, not surprisingly, was that of one of the few who practices without a law degree. That person posted 17 legal questions and provided answers. Of the 17 questions:

Seven contained false information.
Six more were at least misleading or confusing.
Only four out of 17 were fully accurate.

If you are getting a divorce and do not work in the field of family law, you may not know that information on a professional's website is incorrect. It is understandable to presume that someone who does this work full-time would post only accurate information. You could end up relying on false information. The false information posted by the other mediator will remain online until she/he takes it down. Until then, it will mislead most people who read it.

Conflict Resolution Skills Are Not Enough to Mediate a Divorce

Any skilled mediator can probably succeed at keeping most people calm and cordial, but that is insufficient. Staying calm, without more, does not resolve the issue. A divorce mediator also needs substantive knowledge of family law, fluency in the language of divorce finance, and an exhaustive list of parenting plan components. There are dozens – maybe more than 100 – big and small decisions that Matthew’s clients make with ease. Those decisions are made smoothly because Matthew's legal training has enabled him to know what to ask to broaden and deepen the agreement to make it work more effectively for the clients without taking much more of their time.

You can be virtually certain that someone who is attempting to mediate a divorce without a law degree is working with materials prepared by someone with a law degree. The problem is that not everything can be reduced to a checklist or even a reference book. There will always be more law or more legal analysis that didn't make it into the final draft of the materials but still resides within the author's mind. One of three things will happen next:

The mediator will do more research to compensate for what she or he did not know. That will delay the completion of the case, even if the client is not charged extra for that time.
The mediator will confer with an attorney, again either delaying the process, incurring more cost, or both.
The mediator will present only the limited information that he or she has, which could result in a client not having the proper options from which to choose as the client makes important decisions with long-lasting and far-reaching impact.

The Advantages of a Law-Degreed Divorce Mediator

Family law is a field rich with overlapping legal disciplines. At the University of Idaho College of Law, Matthew has taken full-semester courses (in some cases, full-year courses on single subjects that may bear on the resolution of a divorce, including:

Property law (two semesters)
Community Property (one semester)
Family Law and Advanced Family Law (two semesters)
Taxation (one semester)
Bankruptcy (one semester)
Legal Research and Writing (two semesters)
Advanced Legal Writing (one semester)
Wills, Trusts, and Estates (two semesters)
Children and the Law (one semester)
Domestic Violence (one semester)

Moreover, Matthew's training in the other aspects of the law school curriculum, such as Torts, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure, have sometimes provided him with opportunities to share information with clients who may be considering unwise actions that could lead to unintended and undesirable consequences.

Matthew will present your options for resolving each issue in your divorce and can craft creative solutions to meet your needs and usually can accommodate your preferences. His training in the law allows him to understand, research, analyze, and write for his clients to an extent that would be impossible without having committed himself to three years of law school.

Law-Trained Drafting Skills for Agreements that Work and Last

Your Marital Settlement Agreement will be more detailed and precise when you have a law-trained mediator drafting it. Life is not a template. Life is customized to every person, and your MSA must be as well. Like the Apple App Store ad campaign years ago, where the slogan was “Yep, there’s an app for that,” you can include virtually anything important to you in your MSA if your mediator knows how to draft it. Yep, there’s a clause for that!

You Deserve a Highly Trained and Experienced Mediator

Simply put, if your mediator's skill set is deficient because the person lacks a degree in the specific field that matters to solve the problem you are paying significant money for that person to help you navigate, the scope of the options available to you and the effectiveness of the written product that emerges from your mediation will likely be limited as well.

As you choose the person who will guide you through this important process, please consider requiring what the law currently does not. Your mediator should, without question, have a law degree.