Keypoints It is time for a national dialogue about the feasibility of creating out‐of‐court alternatives for separating and divorcing families. Research indicates that separating parents who provide their children with consistency, emotional support, and low conflict help children successfully adapt in the transition process.

This article examines the ways in which divorce and child custody proceedings can impact employee productivity and suggests that it behooves businesses to become involved in supporting efforts to improve the process—both as a matter of community service and because it can impact their bottom line. This article further outlines some improvements that are being implemented or considered in various jurisdictions. Divorce does not just impact the parties and their children. It also impacts the work productivity of the individuals involved. The population of individuals seeking court involvement in child custody issues has changed, and new processes must be developed to address their needs. There are new ideas about how to restructure the divorce process in ways that could benefit both the individuals and their employers.

The Interdisciplinary Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families at the University of Denver described in the Honoring Families Initiative's Family Law Bar Report provides a suite of holistic services tailored to the individual needs of families with children. Services provided include assessment and service planning, legal education, dispute resolution (mediation), agreement and order drafting, therapeutic services, and financial planning. As established by a rigorous empirical evaluation, parents and children appreciate and benefit from these coordinated, holistic services. The Center experience gives evidence of the value of interdisciplinary collaboration. It is our hope that the Family Law Bar will be inspired to promote the development of Centers throughout the country and promote changes in legal regulation and education to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations for the benefit of separating and divorcing families.

Models of lawyering in separation and divorce disputes are evolving to emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration, problem solving, alternative dispute resolution, and changes in legal education that reflect these changes in practice. At the University of Denver's Resource Center for Separating and Divorcing Families (Center), supervised law and mental health graduate students worked as a team to provide assessment and service planning, mediation, therapy, and agreement drafting to parents. Evaluation results showed client satisfaction, and that students acquired new knowledge, skills, and values in line with a collaborative, problem‐solving orientation. Strengths and weaknesses of the model are considered.

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