International family litigation is by far the most labor intensive, the least predictable and very often the most emotional litigation that is practiced in family law. My philosophy is that we need to bring a professionalism and objectivity and understanding of those issues so the client has to deal with one issue only, how he or she are going to take care of the needs of their family, the resolution of this dispute and go on with their lives. I very often say to clients, look, I’m not doing you a service if you can’t -- we can’t sit down together and talk about, in five years where do you want to be. Whether it’s in the preservation of your assets, whether it’s in the ability to educate your children, whether it’s in the ability to share parenting even though you’re talking about an ocean, literally, in between.

In order to do that we have to reduce that unpredictability. The best way to do that is to provide the very finest legal services. To provide you all the possible legal options and information that you need, you don’t have to choose all of those options but you have to know them. And if somebody can’t give you that answer then you need to look elsewhere.

We want to be sure that if there is property or issues that are involving another nation, involving foreign law application, you understand that law, you understand the advise you’re being given about the law and you can make personal decisions that can be enforced under the terms of those law. We want to be sure that the relationship that you have, not just with our office but with the offices of attorneys with whom we might deal, are those in which you feel you’re being communicated with, you understand the very complex legal issues and you’re getting value for the expense that you’re paying with respect to international litigation.

We try to predict what’s going to happen but, of course, nobody can do that, especially in international issues. What we can do is we can identify what we’re going to do, we can identify the issues. I have no problem, for example, I usually do an opinion letter. Our opinion letter is very precise and lengthy, at the beginning of every case, and I say to the client take it wherever you want, talk to whomever you want to with respect to what advise we’re giving you.

It is unusual that a client doesn’t come and say, not only have I done that but my counsel in another country wants to talk to you about how best to address these pleadings or to work together with you. Hopefully we will not be talking about duplication of effort, we’ll be talking about a conciliation of effort that means that the product that is produced is the very best product that can possibly happen.

My other aspect of philosophy is really created because of my educational background. In addition to my law degree my Master’s is in Social Work with a clinical concentration in Family and Children. I understand the emotional issues. I understand the psychological issues. It doesn’t make sense to ignore those issues when you are formulating a litigation strategy. But again I’m doing you no service if I get embroiled in them. What I need to do is help you to identify where the motivations and the issues are being driven by emotion, what the law says and how we can best meet those litigation goals in a way that is predictable and enforceable for your family.

I love the practice of international law. I find it intellectually rewarding. I have, I find it also extraordinarily rewarding to be able to work with judges and lawyers around the world. As a result I’ve had the chance to bring a philosophy, a global philosophy to the resolution of family matters. And I think that that makes a big difference in, in the way we practice law.