COLLABORATION

Jacqueline Katz and Patricia Weidler are attorneys who, while deeply committed to the legal process, also believe that the best and most lasting solutions to conflict are based on prevention, mediation, problem solving and collaborative reconciliation in order to avoid need for sometimes onerous litigation or court proceedings.

Earlier this year, Katz and Weidler became partners in Common Ground Mediation & Services, LLP, a company whose mission is to help their clients achieve “creative and lasting resolutions” to a wide variety of personal disputes. Katz, a graduate of Quinnipiac Law School, also has an M.S. in physical therapy and has been a licensed physical therapist for more than 20  years. Weidler received an M.Ed. degree from the University of Maine before earning a J.D. degree at the University of Maine Law School. Each had been providing Guardian Ad Litem services, as well as a variety of mediation capabilities independently prior to forming their new venture.

Joining forces has enabled them to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. “The company lets us share responsibility, provide coverage for each other. It’s a vehicle for us to do professional work in ways that are ‘gentle’ to ourselves,” Katz asserted, and Weidler quipped that “It’s amost an anti-business model!”

Katz added, “Being together enables us to broaden the population we serve. Our work is about building relationships, and that includes participating in the community, to ‘show up.’”

Weidler said, “That’s difficult to do as an individual, because you can’t be everywhere at once.”

Katz explained, “We have different backgrounds and styles, but share a similar philosophy.”

Weidler’s background includes experience in education and construction, as well as the practice of law, especially as it relates to families and particularly kids. Katz’s background includes specialization in elder care and Social Security disability insurance, as well as her years as a physical therapist. They both were attracted to the field of mediation and alternative dispute resolution because, Weidler explained, “it involves problem-solving between parties, or parents, or siblings – people with some sort of relationship – instead of the traditional legal model of providing advocacy for one side or the other.”

Katz added, “We work equally and neutrally to help both sides come to a mutual, long-lasting resolution that they own.”

Their overarching goal is to help clients mitigate disagreements in ways which are mutually satisfactory and to avoid escalation into what might become “high conflict.” Weidler explained that “it’s about protecting kids and families.”

Katz had apprenticed with June Zellers, who retired from the Common Ground practice in 2009. The availability of the Common Ground office space centrally located on Lisbon Street, in downtown Lewiston, along with a built-in referral network enabled Katz and Weidler, who had known each other professionally for just a few years, to transition from their independent solo practices into the more formalized business structure.

Both women are “always looking for professional growth [opportunities] that will enable us to be more effective, more comprehensive,” one said (they have developed a slight tendency to complete each other’s sentences). Establishing themselves as partners was intended to provide more visibility and to enable the pair to reach out to a wider circle of people, with a wider range of issues in need of resolution.

The two are involved separately and jointly in a variety of professional associations, and actively pursue Continuing Legal Education credits and enhancement of other professional skills. But they have added an array of business organization memberships, too, in addition to the volunteer work and professional development in which they have been engaged. They recently joined the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, for instance, and Weidler said that “when we join these organizations, it is our intention to get really involved with them.”

Being able to share an expanding list of responsibilities makes life easier for each. “Jackie gives me courage,” Weidler explained. “It is very grounding to have another professional, warm-hearted person to process things with.”

The collaboration allows them to “be ourselves,” and, said Katz, “to do more work that is both meaningful and enjoyable.” Clearly, a model that works for the women, their clients, the network of lawyers, families, therapists and past clients who serve as their source of referrals. It is, after all, about collaboration.

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