About the Founder

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.” — George Bernard Shaw

I began my journey with Collaborative Practice in the fall of 1999.  At the conference of the International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers I met a man with an interesting idea and approach to the practice of law.  Stu Webb had created something he called Collaborative Law.  Once I heard him describe it, I was convinced.  Some might say hooked.  I traveled to Dallas the following January to be trained in this approach by Stu and Pauline Tesler, the other key person in bringing Collaborative Law to the world.

Since that weekend in January of 2000, my entire professional life (and much of my personal life as well) has been focused on Collaborative Practice (as it is now called).  In addition to doing cases, I’ve continued to take multiple trainings.  I’ve also conducted many trainings, both basic and advanced.

A great deal of my “free” time has been given to developing communities of Collaborative professionals and to expanding awareness of Collaborative Practice.  This began later in 2000 when I created an email listServe for Collaborative professionals.  This is now the main channel by which professionals world-wide share questions and insights about Collaborative Practice.

I’ve served on the Board of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.  I was part of the startup Board of the Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois where I created its first website and listServe and established the beginnings of its Membership and its Training undertakings.

I have presented several times on various topics at the IACP annual Forums and my articles have been published in the IACP Collaborative Review.  I currently serve on the Editorial Board of the Review.

I have chosen to transform my passion for and experience with Collaborative Practice into something that I hope will help to increase awareness of Collaborative Practice among the people of Illinois and that I hope will support and serve the needs of professionals who have chosen to engage in this challenging but rewarding approach.

I hope you will find here what you need.  If you don’t, I hope you’ll share with me what it is so that I can try to improve what I’ve done here.  Thanks for using the site and perhaps joining us here.  Whether you are a Collaborative practitioner or someone seeking the assistance of one, you are my community and I am privileged to do whatever I can.

InJoy!

carl Michael rossi, JD, LPC, NCC