Mission Statement

There is special pain when family members fight with each other. Even when someone “wins” a family dispute, there is often a larger sense of loss because the family relationships have been damaged. In our mediation office, we work from the perspective that there is always at least one elegant solution to every family conflict—whether it’s a disagreement about care arrangements for an elderly parent, a family business dispute, or a controversy between divorced parents about what school their children will attend. We seek to provide our clients with an environment in which they can do their best thinking and in which each person can be fully heard. We encourage our clients to think about the underlying needs and concerns connected with their dispute, to consider a wide range of possible settlement options, and to look creatively for solutions that are mutually beneficial.

Most of our mediation work involves marital separation and divorce. We know from our own experiences, and from working with hundreds of couples in mediation, that divorce can be one of life’s most difficult transitions. As mediators, our goal is to give separating and divorcing couples the highest level of professional expertise, along with real compassion and empathy. We aim to combine effective use of conflict resolution methods with a skilled lawyer’s understanding of relevant state divorce law. Our process is a structured one that makes room for expression of feelings, but keeps a focus on the decision-making tasks that need to be accomplished. We seek to guide clients through settlement negotiations in a manner that minimizes the financial and emotional harm of separation and divorce and preserves (or repairs) the ability of parents to function as a parenting team, over the long term. Divorce is always sad, but it can be handled with dignity and thoughtfulness.

Diversity is more than a catch-word for us. We know that every client brings to mediation a unique background of experiences and traditions. We encourage clients to talk in mediation about their own traditions and deepest values, and we believe that respect for our clients’ diversity is a strong foundation on which to build an effective mediation process.

John Spiegel
Donna Duquette
Carolyn Finney