Kimberly Davidson, Collaborative Center of Southern California

Helping Families with Kinder, Gentler Divorces

Easy Reader / Beach Magazine – October 8, 2015

By Robb Fulcher

 

Inspired by her own divorce experience, Kimberly Davidson has devoted herself to guiding families through kinder, gentler, courtroom-free divorces, designed to meet the needs of each spouse while protecting the interests of their children.

Davidson, based in the South Bay with clients in Los Angeles and Orange counties, eschews the courtroom entirely, serving as a neutral mediator in divorces, and guiding clients through “collaborative practice” divorces.

“I had a 3-year-old daughter, 25 years ago, when I found  myself in a divorce I was not expecting,” Davidson Said.

At the time, she had a master’s degree in counseling and planned to get a Ph.D., but she changed course to take up the law.

“There were so few resources for families going through divorce. I had a transformative experience. I thought I would do something different, work with people in a different way,” she said.

“There had to be a better way to do divorce,” she said.

As her daughter entered kindergarten, Davidson entered law school, taking classes at night and finishing in four years.

She began working as a family law attorney, and 15 years ago she opened her own practice. She began serving as a neutral mediator, helping spouses and their separate lawyers work out divorce agreements.

Then she learned about a method of divorce that had spread from the Midwest to Northern California – Collaborative Practice, in which spouses negotiate in four-way meetings, with their attorneys present and pledge not to go to court.

Davidson estimates that about 95 percent of her clients successfully complete divorce mediation, and 80 to 85 percent successfully complete collaborative practice.

In either method, a couple must trust each other enough to see a non-litigated divorce as a possibility.

“In my personal opinion, families going through divorce do not belong in the legal system. It’s really about families and continuing relationships, and how to co-parent. We want to help solve problems, not create more problems,” she said.

“Traditional adversarial divorce is like a tug-of-war. If you tug and pull and get what you want, eventually you’ll lose something else.”

Mediation is more difficult when there is “a real imbalance of power in the relationship,” whether financial or psychological. In those cases, the less powerful partner can feel more protected going the collaborative route.

Either way, Davidson urges clients to get support from professionals such as divorce coaches, child specialists and divorce financial planners. With that in mind, she and family therapist Jon Kramer created the Collaborative Center of Southern California which brings together, in one space at their Hermosa Beach offices, those professionals that support a non-litigation approach.

Sometimes, she said, a couple will avoid divorce after consulting with experts. If the problems are financial, for instance, a post-nuptial agreement might iron them out.

“Divorce is one aspect of what we do,” Davidson said.

 

Kimberly Davidson, attorney, 2200 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 312, Hermosa Beach, (310) 374-2025, kim@kimberlydavidson.com, lynne@kimberlydavidson.com