Negotiating Strategies and Challenges in the Divorce Process

About the Book

"Why don't we spend much more of our time studying the art of negotiating? Perhaps a major reason is that divorce is a process, and not much of our legal education is focused on the process. The goal of this book is to explore in detail the scope of knowledge and skills that would be appropriate for professionals who are involved in the negotiation of divorce agreements. This is a book about negotiating! And since all of this negotiating takes place in the context of the divorce process, this is also a book about the divorce process!" - L.D. Gaughan

Negotiating Strategies and Challenges in the Divorce Process represents the professional legacy of my father, Lawrence D. Gaughan, a monumental pioneer in the field of family law and mediation. Completed months before my father's death and published posthumously, this book serves as an academic textbook, as well as a developmental guide for professionals. I remember around the time my father turned 65, I asked him when he planned to write a book related to his life's work. His response was, "I will think about it when I get closer to retirement." Twenty years later, with his practice finally starting to wind down, he announced that he had completed the final edit of his book. Just a few short months after that, he was suddenly stricken with aggressive metastasized melanoma. He passed away on June 23rd, 2019. But, my father lives on in the artful illustrations of his brilliant ideas interwoven and crafted into these chapters. I am honored that, in his final wishes, he entrusted me with the task of making sure his contribution to the field of family law was properly published and promoted. Anyone, from the lay reader to the family law professional, will find this book to be enlightening. It is a thoroughly informative, insightful, and creative examination of how the art of negotiation can be used most effectively in the divorce process." - W. Lawrence Gaughan (son of Lawrence D. Gaughan)

About the Author

Lawrence D. Gaughan was the founder and Professional Director of Family Mediation of Greater Washington. He earned a J.D. from the University of Montana (1957) and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia (1964). L.D. Gaughan practiced family law and family mediation in Northern Virginia from 1979 until his death in 2019. He was also a law professor at the University of Virginia, Washington & Lee University and George Mason University law schools. In 1979-80, L.D. Gaughan took a sabbatical from W&L to study family systems with Murray Bowen, M.D., and his staff in the Department of Psychiatry at Georgetown University. He was a member of the Virginia State Bar since 1967. From 1975-1999 he gave the annual keynote lecture on Family Law at the Virginia State Bar Association Conference.

As an attorney, L.D. Gaughan consistently received the highest ratings for both legal ability and ethical standards ("AVR PreeminentTM") from Martindale-Hubbell. He was also rated 10 out of 10 by Awo. He was a founding member of the Professional Mediation Board of Standards, a 501(C)(3) board formed to frame and implement standards for professional family mediators, and was certified for collaborative practice. In September 2017, L.D. Gaughan received the Distinguished Mediator of the Year award from the Virginia Mediation Network at its annual conference in Richmond. In 2019, at their convention in Boston, he was posthumously recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Professional Family Mediators.