About CollabFest Midwest
CollabFest Midwest was founded in 2020 as an online conference by Iowa Collaborative Divorce as a way to bring collaborative professionals together from across the Midwest and across the country to share and learn from each other. We are glad you are here to join the conversation.
2023 AGENDA
Watch for our 2024 agenda later this year. Below is 2023's speakers to give you a flavor of what CollabFest is about
Collaborative Prenup Agreements
- presented by Jacinta Gallant (PEI), As Collaborative Professionals, we have highly developed skills to help separating couples “untie the knot” – but many of us want to bring this relationship positive approach to prenups, post-nups and even marital mediation. In this workshop, we will explore how the collaborative process can help couples design their future together – in a way that enhances trust and brings the couple’s unique relational values into the agreements they reach. No more boilerplate prenups! This workshop will help you work with more effectively with clients who want to stay together - incorporating discussions around communication and conflict styles, money personalities and core values. All of this can be done in a way that helps the couple discover themselves – individually - as they build their commitment to one another.
Trauma 101 for Lawyers
- presented by Annie von Gillern (IA). As collaborative professionals it is important that all of us come into the room with a trauma informed approach. Our coaches are vital team members but all of us will provide better experience for our clients if we understand the complexity of how trauma impacts their lives.
In the Trenches With a Challenging Case: What Exactly Do Collaborative Trusts and Estates Profession
- presented by Nancy Ross and Alan L. Nobler (CA). Families present Collaborative professionals a unique challenge to use their family mediation/Collaborative conflict resolution skills in helping troubled families trying to resolve estate planning issues while managing long-standing intra-family disagreements. Experience what it’s like to be in a conflicted family (an actual recent case), and find a way forward with the guidance of an experienced Collaborative team. Be a part of learning how to shift even entrenched positions while helping family elders achieve their goals.
Break/Lunch
Mindfulness: My Mind is Like a Bad Neighborhood. How Do I get Out of Here?
- presented by Nicolle Kopping-Pavars (Toronto). How you show up impacts the environments you show up in. When we have unresolved bias or conflict inside of us – we may unconsciously bring this into the relationships we encounter -both at work and at home. Expanding your awareness of your own thoughts, feelings, triggers, conflict aversion and trauma is a powerful and necessary aspect of being a holistic collaborative practitioner. By implementing small yet powerful tools in your daily life, you can shift the way you practice, the results you get, how you show up and elevate how you feel. You only need one person in a room to positively influence the room….be THAT person.s.
The Importance of the Team Debrief
- presented by Ivan Alter (NY) Anthony Diaz (FL) Katherine Morneau (NH), Karen Van Kooy (VA). If the team isn't happy, the clients won't be happy. The team format of collaborative practice is a big paradigm shift for professionals used to working independently. How the team communicates through the case including providing, and receiving, feedback is essential for the success of the process.
Screenings and Ethics in Collaborative Practice
- presented by Beth Karassik, neuropsychologist, collaborative coach, mediator (CT) and Louise Zito, JD (CT). Through the lens of the IACP Standards and Ethics we will consider factors involved in determining whether potential clients are able to effectively participate in the Collaborative Process, to actually share a common goal of reaching resolution, and to use good faith efforts in the interest of reaching agreements. Our responsibility starts with “screening” the clients (and ourselves). It continues with ongoing assessment of the clients’ capacity and willingness to carry out their agreed-upon responsibilities in the collaborative process, attention to the professionals’ fit with each other, and consideration of the likelihood of reaching resolution throughout the collaborative process. Finally, it ends with the Collaborative Professionals having the awareness, courage, and ability to take action in the face of concerns, including to have difficult conversations, to make creative adjustments in approach, and even to terminate the case when indicated.
Speakers
Ivan Alter
Jacinta Gallant
Anthony Diaz
As a Collaborative Attorney and Mediator, I believe that “if you cannot save the marriage, save the divorce.”
After practicing litigation for over a decade, both in matrimonial and complex commercial arenas, I came to recognize the judicial system’s shortcomings in delivering meaningful and satisfying resolutions to conflicts. This is particularly true in family law. So I reinvented my legal career to be more consistent with my values and goals: I now focus exclusively on collaborative law and mediation in Westchester and the Metro New York area.
Anthony Diaz
Jacinta Gallant
Anthony Diaz
My background and experience is perfectly suited for Collaborative Practice. Having previous experience as a Certified Public Accountant, I am very familiar with all financial issues. As a litigator for more than 10 years, I am also familiar with all family law issues. Being a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family and Circuit Civil Mediator as well as a State Qualified Arbitrator is extremely complimentary to the dispute resolution process entailed in Collaborative Law.
Jacinta Gallant
Jacinta Gallant
Jacinta Gallant
Jacinta Gallant is a respected Canadian collaborative lawyer, conflict trainer, mediator, and innovator in her field. She is recognized internationally for her insightful and experiential approach to teaching and managing conflict, and has been welcomed as a trainer throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
“Never cut what can be untied” is the inspiration for Jacinta’s work. Leaving behind many years as a successful litigation lawyer, Jacinta now works exclusively as a settlement advocate – using her skill and wisdom to help people untangle the knots of conflict while attending to relationships.
Speakers
Nicole Kopping-Pavars
Nicole Kopping-Pavars
Nicole Kopping-Pavars
Nicolle was a practicing family law lawyer and mediator for 25 years (South Africa and Canada) and now advocates for Mental health by providing programming that enhances skills and delivers balance and peacemaking processes to individuals who are keen on finding balance in their lives.
Nicolle is a passionate advocate for Trauma Awareness and Responsiveness being recognized as an integral part of any system where emotion arises. Nicolle is a certified Mindfulness Instructor and author who presents workshops and training on Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence both locally and internationally.
Beth Karassik
Nicole Kopping-Pavars
Nicole Kopping-Pavars
Dr. Karassik is a Family Specialist/Divorce Coach and Child Specialist in the Collaborative Practice of Divorce and a trained mediator who often co-mediates separations/divorces with other professionals. In her Divorce and Separation practice, she brings a deep appreciation, based on personal experience, of the impact of divorce on families and couples. Her expertise as a neuropsychologist gives her insight into how emotions like loss, uncertainty, and fear affect thinking and decision-making during difficult times like divorce. Her own divorce and experience of co-parenting deepened her understanding of the challenges involved in this transitional time for families. As a clinical psychologist trained in Discernment Counseling, Mediation, and Collaborative Divorce she works with people at all stages of contemplating or entering into the divorce/separation process.
Katherine Morneau
Nicole Kopping-Pavars
Katherine Morneau
I am a dedicated family lawyer and business owner. I am known for helping good people through tough times, such as divorce and parenting matters. As a child of an amicable divorce, I know how hard divorce can be on children, even in the best of situations. With a focus on working together for the interests of the family, I strive to give my clients the tools they need for a successful future.
I have a strong reputation of giving back to the New Hampshire community that I grew up in and support my team to do the same. I genuinely care about my team, clients and community and look forward to continuing to grow my practice in the Nashua area.
Speakers
Alan L. Nobler
Alan L. Nobler
Alan L. Nobler
Alan became involved in the Collaborative Practice movement in the early 1990's, limiting his casework to Mediation and Collaboration in 1999. He retired from active practice in 2017 and has since worked primarily as a trainer. He also authored a novel chronicling a case through the litigation process, “The Girl in the Halo.”
Alan has trained attorneys, judges, therapists and financial professionals in Mediation and Collaborative Practice, has presented for the Santa Clara County Bar Association, the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists, the State Bar of California and the State Bar of Idaho as well as Collaborative organizations throughout California.
Alan was the recipient of the “Eureka Award” for his contributions in founding Collaborative Practice in California. He became a Certified Family Law Specialist in 1980 and has been named to Super Lawyers (Northern California).
For more information about Alan, please visit www.nobler.com.
Nancy Ross
Alan L. Nobler
Alan L. Nobler
Nancy is a founding member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, a member of Collaborative Practice California, (where she is a recipient of the California Collaborative Practice Eureka award for practice excellence) and serves as an executive board member for Collaborative Practice Silicon Valley. She is also a co-creater of the Interdisciplinary Collaborative Divorce model. Currently she seeks to bring the same goals of creating healthier family relationships, to the Collaborative Trusts and Estates arena, where she has created and led four Interdisciplinary Collaborative Trusts and Estates introductory trainings and developed protocols for the Collaborative Trusts and Estates Interdisciplinary Process. She also chairs the Trusts and Estates “Think Tank of Collaborative Practice, Silicon Valley,” and along with her colleagues, helped develop the on-line Trusts and Estates Options program for the general public.
Speakers
Karen Van Kooy
Annie von Gillern
Annie von Gillern
My goal is always to help people find their way through to a better future. Whether happily planning their lives together and in need of a well-crafted prenuptial agreement and Estate Plan, or sadly, contemplating ending their marriage and in need of an experienced professional to help negotiate and navigate a new future, Van Kooy Law & Mediation offers a compassionate approach to these services.
Over the years, it has become clear to me that mediation, Collaborative Law, and other “Alternative Dispute Resolution” approaches should not be the alternatives but rather the norm when it comes to negotiating family law matters. In 2019, I chose to devote my time and energy exclusively to out-of-court approaches to conflict resolution. My focus is to assist clients in finding the appropriate tools and approach that will work best under their circumstances. Every case and every individual is different and is treated as such.
Annie von Gillern
Annie von Gillern
Annie von Gillern
Annie von Gillern is a therapist and attorney who serves as a child specialist, collaborative facilitator, and advocate for children. She is a licensed independent social worker (LISW) focused on the needs for children. She is a Des Moines native and mom to four small people of her own. She graduated from Iowa State University a BS in Psychology and a music minor and received her Masters of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Missouri-Columbia and her JD from Drake University just before her second child was born. Her training and professional work focuses on domestic violence, child welfare, and trauma including seven years at the Middleton Center for Children’s Rights in the Drake Legal Clinic when she first started practicing.
Louise Zito
Annie von Gillern
Louise Zito
Louise Zito, JD, has mediated family and related matters for 25 years and draws heavily on her mediation experience in her collaborative work. She trains attorneys, family specialists and financial specialists in basic and advanced family mediation and is a senior fellow to the Quinnipiac School of Law Center on Dispute Resolution, serving as a liaison between the Center and CCND (CT Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce - Connecticut's state organization for mediators and collaborative professionals). She is an APFM Certified Advanced Practitioner. Louise co-founded the Divorce Solutions of Connecticut professional organization and the Connecticut Family Mediation Training Group. She is a member of the Collaborative Divorce Team of Connecticut, Connecticut Summit of Collaborative Professionals, and IACP. Louise is also on the Steering Committee for the Task Force on Reimagining Family Dispute Resolution, a joint project of CCND and The Center on Dispute Resolution. Louise received CCND's Howard Krieger Beacon Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. She is a current Board member and Past President of CCND.
co-sponsors
