Specializing in Divorce, Mediation and Collaborative Law
Emily Lynn Singer is an attorney with more than 20 years experience in Divorce and Family Law who offers Mediation, Collaborative Law, and Cooperative Divorce Law Services for those who seek to resolve their matrimonial and family matters outside of Court and without adversarial proceedings. She also represents clients litigating before the Supreme Courts and Family Courts of Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
Ending a marriage is an emotional, difficult, and often overwhelming experience. Proceedings in the Court System are adversarial in nature. Once in Court, the parties are not offered a process that encourages compromise and resolution between the disputants themselves. Autonomy is lost in the litigation process. Generally counsel only addresses the Court, commonly in the Chambers of the Judge (the parties are not included in these meetings) and the case is set on track for a time consuming and costly litigation process. The parties voice is minimized as the parties must use counsel to speak on their behalf, with opposing counsel and with the Court in Chambers, and then report back as to what was said. This can be a mystifying and often frustrating approach for the clients. Mediation and Collaborative Law are not well suited for every case and may even be inappropriate in some instances. However, it has much to offer those who would like to be primarily involved in their own decision-making and in exploring the options regarding their future and that of their family. The preservation of such autonomy and the “self-determination” of the parties is the cornerstone of mediation and collaborative law.
Ending a marriage is an emotional, difficult, and often overwhelming experience. Proceedings in the Court System are adversarial in nature. Once in Court, the parties are not offered a process that encourages compromise and resolution between the disputants themselves. Autonomy is lost in the litigation process. Generally counsel only addresses the Court, commonly in the Chambers of the Judge (the parties are not included in these meetings) and the case is set on track for a time consuming and costly litigation process. The parties voice is minimized as the parties must use counsel to speak on their behalf, with opposing counsel and with the Court in Chambers, and then report back as to what was said. This can be a mystifying and often frustrating approach for the clients. Mediation and Collaborative Law are not well suited for every case and may even be inappropriate in some instances. However, it has much to offer those who would like to be primarily involved in their own decision-making and in exploring the options regarding their future and that of their family. The preservation of such autonomy and the “self-determination” of the parties is the cornerstone of mediation and collaborative law.
What Sets Us Apart
Emily is both an experienced divorce attorney and mediator. There are few mediators and attorneys for that matter, that have supplemented their Juris Doctor (Law Degree) with the highly specific and extensive training in Negotiation, Mediation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution through a Masters of Science in this emerging field at Columbia University. As a result, Emily Singer has a far broader range of training, understanding and approach in Negotiation and Alternative Dispute Resolution having studied and trained under the foremost experts in the field. Unlike the basic 36-40 hours of mediation training required of mediators, a Masters of Science is an intensive advanced training providing a perspective and understanding of the dynamics, varying theory and approaches in this budding and vital area of practice.