Written by My Collaborative Team President Edward S. Sachs
Could you imagine watching a football game and the following occurs. Your team has the ball on their 35-yard line, it is 4th and 20 to go, there are 15 seconds left in the game and they are down by two points. Time for a game winning field goal. You look at the coach on the sideline and he is on his cell phone making a call. It seems as though the coach didn’t think they would need a field goal kicker in this game because they always score touchdowns. So he was calling a kicker to see if he could join the team and help them out. Sound ludicrous? Of course it is. No coach would leave important players off the team even though they didn’t always need them.
The same could be said for a Collaborative Team! Why leave team members off because you think you won’t need them? Every Collaborative Team should begin with two lawyers, a coach, family specialist or facilitator (depending on what you call them in your area), and a financial neutral. If you aren’t sure whether you will ultimately need them then start the engagement with that understanding.
I work with many facilitators who would happily join a Collaborative Team without requiring a retainer to start. As a financial neutral, I would gladly start a case without a retainer if you weren’t sure whether I would be needed for more than some perfunctory work. As long as the clients agree to pay the neutrals their hourly rate and allow the neutrals to bill after every meeting or every batch of work, we are happy to provide such services.
Don’t start a Collaborative matter without a full team. Adding neutrals later just diminishes their worth in the Collaborative Process.
