Rosaire's Point of View

Why do you practice family law?

I make a difference in people’s lives. Divorce law is immediate and personal and extraordinarily varied. It touches every single thing in a person’s life – their children, their spouse, their house, their future, and their belongings. As an anti-trust lawyer, I spent my days reading documents. The public’s involvement with the legal system is divorce, real estate, and criminal – in that order. Most of the people you know have been involved with divorce, either personally or as a child of divorce.

Love and the Law?

I’d advise all people in committed relationships to see a lawyer whether they’re getting married or not. If you’re going to buy and own property together, you have to understand your legal rights. If you were to buy a commercial building with partners, you’d see a lawyer; you’d have a contract so you know what your partners are going to do. It’s no different in a committed relationship – particularly if you’re not married. If you are going to get married, you need to understand the laws because the government is writing the contract for you. If you like that, okay. If you don’t like it, consider a pre-nuptial contract to define the way you want things to be separated. It’s not planning for divorce – it opens a conversation about expectations and prepares you for reality.

What can clients expect in working with you?

Education and planning. The reasons the marriage is breaking up and who did what to whom really doesn’t have anything to do with property, custody, maintenance, and child support. You’d be amazed how many lawyers say to a client, "Oh sure, you want to stay in the house; you’re emotionally connected to the house – I’ll get that for you." But it might not be a wise thing to have the only asset, which is a $1.8 million house with a $600,000 mortgage when you’re a single 58-year-old. Maybe you don’t need that asset, no matter how emotional your attachment. What you need is some financial planning because you have 35 or 40 years left on this earth. You need income, you need financial planning. Both sides need that. If you’re single mother at 35 with three kids, you need financial planning because you’ve got to educate them. All of that has to do with the future and isn’t affected by the reasons you’re getting divorced.

What would you say to put clients at ease?

I like to tell people I’m like the guide going down the river. I’ve been down the river 5,685 times; you’ve never been down the river. I can prepare you for the journey. That’s what’s calming – to have a guide. There are going to be rapids. There’s going to be conflict, but most cases settle. Armed with that information, it doesn’t have to be so adversarial. Breaking up is hard to do. You don’t always smile at each other and shake hands, but you can get through it. You don’t have to get into the adversarial portion of it.