Samantha Gemberling joins Tom to discuss a significant new statute impacting virtually all family law practitioners. Samantha has spent years working with interest groups and legislators to update the Minnesota family law statute, especially in the area of spousal maintenance. In addition, she discusses changes to parenting issues, pernuptial and postnuptial agreement and assisted reproduction technology statutes.
Karen Kritta and Tom Harjes join Tom Tuft to discuss advance payment of Child Tax Credit and the recently passed Minnesota tax bill that includes deduction for PPP-related expenses and other changes relevant to family law matters. In addition, they discuss the newly decided Schmidt case that confirms the necessity of using NET income to determine whether a party can meet their needs.
Chris Vatsaas, a partner at Chesnut Cambronne, PA and Lindsey O'Connell, a shareholder at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O'Connell, PLLC join Tom Tuft to discuss the programs at the Family Law League. The Family Law Leauge is one of the leading organizations among Minnesota Family Law professionals. While oriented to the younger such professionals, they welcome all family law professionals.
Dr. Jordan Hart and Dr. Kent Kodalen join Tom to discuss coaching in the context of family law. What is it and when can it be most helpful? What is the difference between coaching and therapy? Can both parents use the same coach?
Michelle Camilli and Jennifer Stevens join Tom to discuss the happenings in Dakota County Family Division. The biggest news is the new volunteer mediation program they launched with support of Judge Wahi. In addition, they discuss the new calendaring system for trials. Finally, they discuss the benefits of having a marketing wingman/woman to help you build your practice.
Jennifer Stevens of Stevens Family Law and Mediation, PLLC and Liz Drotning Hartwell of Best and Flanagan join Tom to discuss how they built successful practices. Both had to restart their practice upon relocating to Minnesota from different states. Jennifer practiced in Indiana. Now, she has a solo practice in Dakota County. Liz was the managing partner at a firm in New Mexico. Now, she works at Best & Flanagan. They discuss how they made connections and built their business. In addition, they discuss parenting while building a practice.
Mike Black and Marty Swaden join Tom to discuss family law arbitration.
Family law attorneys Dan O'Connell and Allie Connell of Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O'Connell, PLLC join Tom to discuss the many nuances of spousal maintenance (once called alimony). They consider why permanent maintenance may not be permanent and temporary maintenance may not be temporary. They address modification upon retirement, unemployment, remarriage, or other major life event event. They discuss the difference between waivers and Karon waivers.
Some of our podcasts are for family law professionals and some are for consumers of family law services. This one is more oriented to consumers.
Author Alysha Price of The Price Dynamic joins Tom to discuss the services her company provides, including affordable supervised parenting time. In addition, they discuss the relative paucity of people of color providing services for families and her plans to train more providers to support underserved communities.
Susan Rhode and Jim Vedder of Moss & Barnett join Tom Tuft of Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O'Connell to discuss how to prepare a family law client for resolution of their case. They discuss concepts of BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) and WATNA (Worst Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) a concept fleshed out in "Getting to Yes" by Fisher and Ury. In addition, they discuss how to use the expertise of the ADR provider to assist them in working with their client to find a good resolution of the case.
Tim Morrow and Azure Schermerhorn-Snyder join Tom for a preview of next week's Minnesota Family Law Institute.
Zak Kretchmer and Kevin McGrath join Tom for preview of the topic of Divorce Camp, Negotiation. They discuss the pros and cons of different approaches. This is the first in a series of episodes on negotiations.
Patrick Hest, an Assistant Director at the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, joins Tom to discuss how the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office is handling their family law-related work through the pandemic. This includes not bringing new contempt proceedings for non-payment of child support due to the poor economy and the desire to reduce the jail population. He identifies the opportunities for payment of child support with per capita stimulus payments as well as expanded eligibility for unemployment compensation under the previous federal stimulus packages.
In addition, his office is leveraging already available public assistance services to help those with child support obligations find employment or even develop a career path. A goal is to help people get well-paying jobs with the collateral benefit of helping them get on top of their child support payments.
Kelly Olson Pederson, CFP, CDFA, of Caissa Wealth Strategies joins Tom to discuss the importance of financial guidance during a divorce, especially in these uncertain times. She identifies the importance being aware of the tax and other differences of various kinds of assets from cash ("cash is king") to Roth IRAs to investment accounts (capital gains and income tax) to IRAs and 401(k)s (penalties and ordinary income tax). In addition, she points out that we need to consider how liquid an asset may be from cash to real estate to a business and whether discounting should be considered. Finally, she discusses the importance of having an eye on the short, medium and long term needs of our clients.
Marilyn Hoffies, senior a paralegal at the law firm of Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, PLLC discusses how she and her colleagues at other firms are handling working remotely. She identifies what struggles support staff from firms large and small have experienced in the move to working remotely. She offers tips on maintaining firm collegiality through distant learning. In addition, she discusses what she did to maintain work life balance while working at home.
Attorney Allyson Kerr of Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell, PLLP, joins Tom to discuss her first evidentiary hearing, an OFP conducted via Zoom. To add to the complexity, it was a case involving an interpreter. She discusses how the parties were situated; how the Court handled exhibits; how counsel shared exhibits with the witnesses and judicial officer; and how the judicial officer rendered the decision. She discusses glitches to watch for (like a problem with feedback on the line) and offers a few tips on making it all go smoothly for your client.
Attorney Jennifer Roben and paralegal Amanda Rock join time to discuss the changes they have made in their firm as we emerge from the pandemic. They discuss how, through the use of technology, they have been able to quickly adapt and continue to serve their clients. They have the added benefit of having experience working from home before the pandemic hit so they had technology and systems in place. They discuss the challenges of maintaining the social and professional interaction with one another when not together in the office and when the means of communication are more limited. They discuss safety precautions their firm is taking as clients return to attorney offices.
Christine Tuft, Marketing Partner at the Law Firm of Arthur, Chapman, Kettering, Smetak & Pikala joins Tom to discuss practice development and marketing. The focus of this episode is on self-assessment, skillset assessment, and business assessment. These are the first steps in creating a marketing-focused business plan.
Self Assessment. We need to be self-aware and need to know our strengths and weaknesses. What is your personality type. What do you like doing and what are you willing to do. This is a challenging exercise in that it is important to be honest with ourselves and self-aware enough to make this kind of assessment. Taking it to the next level includes inquiring of a trusted colleague or mentor to help you with an honest assessment
Skillset Assessment. What are the gaps in your knowledge our skills? What do you need to add to your personal inventory to reach your goals.
Business Assessment. Analyzing what kind of work you are doing and how are you getting it. This includes gathering the data from your firm and taking the time to study and think about it. This includes identifying case types and referral sources.
This is part of an ongoing series of podcasts on business development and marketing.
Attorneys Victoria Elsmore and Amy Krupinski join Tom to tell the tale of their family court jury trial. They represented the biological father in the case in which the mother and her husband sought to have the issue of paternity determined by jury. The jury was to decide between the competing presumptions. They discovered that court rules do not really contemplate family court juvenile trials. The attorneys had to work around those rules. There was the additional challenge of language and cultural barriers to address in the case.
Before they could even get started, the trial court’s decision to grant a jury trial was appealed all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Once that was resolved, they had to address unique issues large and small. From basic questions like how many jurors to seat. To nuanced questions like voir dire of the jurors and then selection. They had to create jury instructions essentially from scratch. They had to do an oral closing to the jury and then wait for deliberations to decide paternity. Ultimately, the biological father prevailed on paternity, but issues of parenting time and custody remain to be resolved.
Amanda Hagen joins Tom to discuss the challenges of practicing in Minnesota and Wisconsin, especially in light of the differences in how the two states are approaching the pandemic. She reviews the battle between the Wisconsin executive branch and judicial branch over emergency powers. Then, she explains how the Wisconsin courts are handling court proceedings and compares that with how the Minnesota courts have moved forward.