While we have been honored to represent our share of public figures, David Boies has been hired for the biggest cases by the highest profile clients (Al Gore, Mrs. McCourt, the NFLPA and the NBPA among others). This program will be educational for all, and I will have the best seat in the house. I am flattered and grateful to have been invited onto the panel and look forward to learning a lot from my co-panelists. If there is anything you want us to address during the program, let me know so I can see if we can work it in. If we can’t, I’ll do my best to get answers to your questions after the program.

I probably never thanked her sufficiently for what she contributed to my limited success as a lawyer, so Pamela, thank you, I wish I had told you more often how grateful I was for the opportunity you gave me. And I hope I remember to thank anyone and everyone else who has helped me in life and in my career. Not to do so would be a further tragedy.

H. Lane Young II, a partner at Hawkins, Parnell, Thackston & Young and a leading legal malpractice practitioner writes:.

I have been defending lawyers for 30 years and have seen the legal malpractice law change and progress. Your book not only provides lawyers working in the field of legal malpractice an excellent overview of the applicable law but it also provides them with an excellent update with respect to both the obvious and subtle changes to the law. I recommend it highly to all lawyers who practice in the area and I also believe lawyers in general would find the book both helpful and instructive.

Tell us what you think.

Official book signing at the Daily Report

Finally seeing the finished product was so nice. But it also means now that everyone can read it, I have to be sure we update it and keep it current. There are already suggestions for updates that I have started on.

If you search for a family law form and it is not in the book, please let me know so we can consider including it, if appropriate for the book, in the updates (to order your copy, click here). I remain grateful to the attorneys and law clerks in our office and the publisher and their editors and staff who have helped so much to make this book a reality.

I hope you enjoy it and I look forward to your feedback.

I am getting excited. The forms’ book “Georgia Library of Family Law Forms” which we have been working on for about a year is about to be delivered. The truck should arrive within a week or two and the first printed copies will then be available (for more details, or to order, click here). The book is a great place to start if you are building your own set of family law forms or if you just want a resource “just in case”. It forced us to review all of our forms and to create new ones. If you do purchase the book and wish there was a form there which is not, please let me know and I will see what I can do. But it is fairly comprehensive for a first edition and I am very proud of it. Working with the publisher, editor and all of the staff (theirs and ours) has truly been a pleasure as we have all been dedicated to producing a high quality product. It is almost here and I am really looking forward to seeing it, and to hearing your feedback. Please don’t be shy and let me know your thoughts once it is out. — Randy

I am so honored and excited. The FLS has 10,000 members who are all interested in the practice of family law, whether they are lawyers, judges or law students (more than 9,000 are lawyers). Our goal— and mine—is to improve the practice of family law and to minimize the negative impact family law can have on families. My platform will be a continuation of our “Families Matter” project that has the reduction of such an impact on families as its goal.

Practicing family law has been gratifying, knowing that we can and have helped many families. It also can and has been frustrating. When bad results happen to good people, especially to children, it can be devastating. But our job is not to be devastated and depressed, but to persevere and find better solutions. Through the ABA, we are working to improve the system and hopefully to help all families achieve results that are better for the whole family. Of course this is a difficult task, but it is one that any civilized society must undertake. All family law professionals (lawyers, judges, psychologists, accountants and others) play a role. Is our system perfect? No way. In fact, our systems vary from state to state and from community to community. But we are evolving. Today, family law is not an area of the law that is looked down upon. To the contrary, it is an area of the law viewed by many as one of the most important areas of law that exist. What other area has the ability to affect families and futures as much as ours? And with that comes a significant burden, a burden to help families and a burden to improve society.

I am glad to be in a position to help families. In my practice, I often have that opportunity, and as chair of the Family Law Section of the ABA, I have been given an even greater opportunity. I will try my best not to squander it and to do what I can to help families and professionals who are helping those families. If there is anything I can do, I hope you will call on me to serve you. It will be an honor to serve and I am sure, an experience I will never forget.

But now President Obama has announced that he will support the repeal of this law. This does not mean states have to allow same- sex marriage, but it does remove a large obstacle for gay marriage proponents. The legislation President Obama now supports still has yet to pass, but this is a big first step.

Regardless of whether people feel gay marriage should be allowed or not, I think I am a proponent of allowing gay divorce. Not because it generates more business for divorce lawyers; in fact, it will create less business because the process of separating gay couples and dividing their assets and working out visitation arrangements for their children would then be simpler and much less costly. Rather, the reason to support allowing gay couples to divorce is that it gives law abiding adults a method to resolve disputes that will arise whether there is gay marriage or not. Throughout time there have been same sex relationships. The real question for me is how we, as an advanced civilization, handle the legal aspects of a separation. If we ignore it and put our heads in the sand, that helps no one. The problems remain, people engage in self help and take what they want, including children and the result is chaos.

I am not sure what the future holds, but it seems that a legal process, whether it is allowing same-sex divorce or whether we term it something else would be a positive step for our society and most importantly for the children of same sex couples.

The Lopez/Anthony divorce just happens to be the most current celebrity divorce. What is interesting to me is only that it is so interesting to everyone else. All major news organizations reported on it immediately, even though there was really nothing to report. Perhaps it is that we romanticize our celebrities. We want their marriages to work since they are who we aspire to be?

Celebrities have many issues the average person will never have to face, such as crazy visitation schedules, nanny issues and significant asset division and/or support payments. But ultimately, celebrities are like anyone else. They get their feelings hurt, they have pride and they sometimes feel a need to “win” almost as if that is an achievement. But most often, they ultimately realize that it is best to put the legal process behind them and to resolve matters. Using lawyers to do their communicating often has its limits and almost always, celebrities figure out what they want to do and then tell their lawyers to “make it so”. They are used to controlling their own destinies and often are more confident than the average person in their own decisions. After all, their own decisions got them where they are.

There are also many celebrities who meet with us (divorce lawyers) and never file anything. When they finally do make the decision to seek a divorce, they usually know what they want and are ready to make a deal. It would not surprise me if Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony, like many other famous couples, had already investigated the process for a very long time and had a good idea of what the outcome should and would be long before one or both of them made the decision to end the marriage.

And the way they handled it is the way it should be done. A joint statement, such as  they have released, letting the world know they are mature enough to handle it privately for the sake of their children is wonderful.

When two wealthy people fight, judges often are more upset. Every day in Family Court, judges see regular people scraping to survive and raise their children. It seems Ms. Lopez and Mr. Anthony recognized this and it is admirable that they have resolved matters outside of court. That is how it should always be done, in my opinion and I hope others will follow their example, if they decide to divorce.

Preorders have been shipped, but introductory discounts are still available.

Personal Injury forms book delivered to the Daily Report

We had trial lawyers and prosecutors from all over the state teaching younger lawyers how to master trial skills from opening statements to cross examination. By the end of the session, the attendees had learned a lot and made some new friends and mentors.

The personal injury forms book was a big hit as a number of attendees pre-ordered the book.

I appreciate all the help that Steve Harper and the staff at ICLE gave me in setting up seminars and promoting the book. I cannot wait for the September 9th seminar, “Secrets to a Successful Plaintiff’s Personal Injury Practice,” which will feature the forms book.

You can register for the seminar by clicking here.