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Published on:

20th May 2025

Redefining Divorce: Compassionate Law and Holistic Support with Kimberly Miller

In this episode of Doing Divorce Different, Lesa Koski sits down with Kimberly Miller—an attorney and licensed marriage and family therapist—who is changing the way divorce is approached. With a dual background in law and therapy, Kimberly shares how her work bridges legal strategy with emotional intelligence to support families through respectful, amicable transitions.

We explore her journey from courtroom advocate to holistic practitioner, the power of mediation, and the inspiration behind Part Wise—an educational platform designed to demystify divorce and empower those navigating it.

What You'll Learn:



  • How Kimberly integrates legal and therapeutic practices



  • Why collaborative divorce leads to better outcomes



  • What Part Wise offers and how it's changing divorce education



  • Tips for finding peace and clarity in the midst of legal transitions

Twin Cities divorce professional Kimberly Miller, JD, LMFT, CFP®, CDFA®, is known for her ability to resolve challenging family issues without resort to aggressive legal strategies that are damaging to vital family relationships. After years of litigating business and family disputes at a prominent national firm, she recognized the devastating psychological and financial impact that litigation can have on individuals, couples, and other loved ones. She decided to establish her own practice to promote alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as collaborative law and mediation, to reach consensus.

Resources:

🔗 Visit Part Wise

🎧 Listen in and discover a better, kinder way to move forward after divorce.

DIY Parenting Plan Course

Find More From Lesa Here!

Mentioned in this episode:

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Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome listeners.

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I am very excited to have you here today.

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I have someone that's new in

my life that's like kind of

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living in a parallel universe.

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I have Kimberly Miller and Kimberly.

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I'm so excited to find out more

about you because dear listeners,

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she is also an attorney.

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You're also a marriage

and family therapist.

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I think you said you have three kiddos.

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I have three kiddos.

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I'm gonna step up.

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I've got some grandkids too.

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I think yours are in college.

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We're not there yet.

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Not yet.

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But Kimberly, I wanna welcome you

and I want to get to know you better.

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I want the listeners to

get to know you better.

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So I know that you live in St.

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Paul and I know that you, um,

have a new, something called part

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wise that we're gonna talk about

that helps people through divorce.

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But can you give me your background on

how, what'd you become first a lawyer

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or a marriage and family therapist?

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Speaker 2: Uh, great question and

thank you so much for having me today.

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Um, I did start my career as a lawyer.

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Okay.

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That was the first step.

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Um, and I had sort of a unique, I

was working for a big law firm doing

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business litigation, uh, and I was

walking by a courtroom in, in Hennepin

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County, and a judge who knew me.

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Saw me walk past and he called me

into the courtroom and he introduced

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me to my new pro bono client.

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He had somebody in front of him who really

needed representation, and I looked around

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and realized I was in family court and

I thought, oh my gosh, I do not know

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what this is or how to handle this.

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It was so different than anything

that I'd ever done before.

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Uh, but I grew to love family law and

became the go-to pro bono family law.

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You know, attorney at this firm.

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And I found that I loved that

work and wanted to just continue

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to do that and do that on my own.

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So that, that was my first step.

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Uh, but as, as I'm sure you

know, once you get into it,

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divorce is family law in general.

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It's one part law, but it feels

much more to me, emotional,

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relational, and financial.

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Um, so.

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Coming from a family that highly values

education, I decided to take one class

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on family systems so I could learn

about dynamics and how a divorce or

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a shift in those relationships kind

of impacts the whole family system.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I'm.

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Sucker for education.

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So I just stuck with it.

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And so that was about 20 years, 18

years ago, I became a marriage and

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family therapist, uh, and did the year

practicum and I actually did a thousand

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hours of therapy where I was providing

therapy to families and really just

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found that it greatly enhanced my

ability to provide legal services and

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really just help families through this

transition as they're moving from, you

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know, one family to, to two households.

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Speaker: Yep.

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Hats off to you because, oh, you said that

was, did you say that was 20 years ago?

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Speaker 2: I'm, I'm

doing the math wrong now.

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I bet.

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So I'm a lawyer I bet.

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Whatever, almost 25 years ago.

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Yeah.

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But at least it was about 12 years

ago, I think, when I started my,

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my financial, uh, or my marriage

and family therapy program.

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Speaker: Okay.

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I, I, I love that.

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So.

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You went, you became a therapist because

it helped you understand the work you were

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doing be, I mean, that's really awesome.

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My, I kind of was backwards from you.

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I did the master's and then I went to

law school, but family law found me too.

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It wasn't what I was

thinking I was gonna do.

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Um, but it is, it is

such, uh, it's rewarding.

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It's hard, but to be able to help

those families work together and I.

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Would love to, you know, pick your

brain a little bit about the dynamics.

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We know how much it affects children

and how I love to do things amicably,

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but tell me about, so your prac, tell me

about your practice and then I wanna get

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into part wise and why you started that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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So my practice, uh, when I, those early

years of doing pro bono family law

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work were almost always court based.

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They were really contentious.

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There was a lot of domestic

violence or safety issues, things

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in which you really do need.

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And I do believe there are certain

circumstances in which you need the

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safety and protections of court.

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Um, so that was my early

experiences with family law was.

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In a courtroom and in really contested,

very adversarial situations, I quickly

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realized there was another way to do it.

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And for lots and lots of families,

the ability to work together, come

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up with resolutions outside of

court was really appealing to me.

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So that was where I think the

marriage and family therapy

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degree became so helpful in those.

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That expertise.

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Um, and I also do, I'm also a

certified financial planner.

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Yes.

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That was a number of years later.

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I felt like I wanted more

of that financial expertise.

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But with regard to the question of, you

know, how it impacts families, family

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law is so unique in that you can.

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Contract around the law.

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I mean, there's no other area in which

what the law says, we can basically say,

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yeah, that is what a court would do,

but we wanna do something different.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I think it provides a really unique

opportunity to come up with better

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outcomes for the families if we can just

provide that safe space where both sides

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feel like they have the support that

they need, whatever that might look like.

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Mm-hmm.

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It might be a lawyer, it

might be a coach, it might be.

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Two coaches and two financial planners,

like whatever support they need, if

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they can make decisions for themselves.

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Being out of court provides

us this opportunity to be

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creative because the law.

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Yep.

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I love that.

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Law is the, yeah, the law is the

legislature's best guess at what will

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work for a majority of the families, but

your unique outcome is what works best

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for you and I always, the parents or the

two people going through this are going

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to be the best architects of that future.

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We just have to help

guide them through that.

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Speaker: Right.

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And what I love Kimberly, is I love

having that legal background and I

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always recommend, um, whether people

are going to a mediator, you know,

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or, or however they're doing it, that

they do have someone that has that

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legal background so that you can at

least understand the parameters of the

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law so you're not willy-nilly putting

something together and not explaining why.

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I just always, I say, yes, you.

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I haven't had anyone ever run

into any trouble as long as

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they explain why they're doing

something and they're clear on it.

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Yeah.

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You know?

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So now Kimberly, do you represent one

person or are you doing mediations?

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I'm, I don't even know.

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I.

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Speaker 2: It's a good, yeah, I

used to, I used to be more of what I

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call an aligned advocate, you know,

where I was aligned with one party.

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Um, and I did that in

collaborative law settings.

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I did that as a representative in

mediations representing one party or,

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um, just in settlement focused work.

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Uh, but over the last two or three

years while I've been developing

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part wise, I've tried to figure out.

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What do I like to do?

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I mean, so this is hard work.

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I always tell clients like they

go through this once, but the

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professionals who do this work,

you know, we might go through it.

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I mean, I've gone through it 900 times,

like I've worked on over 900 cases.

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That is not always, um,

easy on the professionals.

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So I find that I really enjoy

working in a neutral setting.

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Uh, so right now my, my legal work is

all as a mediator, um, or a financial

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neutral working with families as they're

going through like a collaborative

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or settlement focused process

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Speaker: wonder.

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Okay.

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So you're part of the

collaborative law group probably.

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And yes.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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Wonderful.

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I love that.

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I love that idea and I love to know

that you're out there because I am

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not legally representing, I'm working

with both of the parties to come to

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agreements, and I always recommend

that they, at least one of them.

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Have, uh, an attorney and I

love it when it's someone like

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you who gets it, who gets that.

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They don't wanna fight and understands

that they might do things that, 'cause

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sometimes you can send them to an attorney

and they'll be like, well, I can get this.

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And, and it like, yeah, you

can if you wanna fight and.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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I have my list.

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I have my short list of trusted

attorneys who I always just tell clients

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they will advocate for you, they will

support you, they will do everything

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that they need to and are ethically

obligated to do as your attorney.

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They just won't mess anything up for

the pure purposes of like lawyering.

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Um, oh, and I've seen that.

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Yeah.

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Yes.

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And it's fear that people have

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Speaker: too many times.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and they watch

things on TV and it, you know,

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it doesn't have to be that way.

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Lawyers are not all like that.

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There really is an And

some are opportunity.

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Yeah, some are.

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Some are

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Speaker: and some aren't.

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So I'm glad to know

you're there because, um.

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You know, my clients are always looking

for someone to just kind of go through the

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paperwork and file it for them, so, right.

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It's good to know that you are out there

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Speaker 2: and getting back to what you,

um, were talking about, like, it's always

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good to have some legal information.

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I always like to kind of frame.

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For clients who are able to make

decisions for themselves, that they're

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really gonna decide and make their final

decisions based on three different things.

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The facts, I mean, you have to

understand what's there, and then

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you do have to understand the law.

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You have to understand how would

this be looked at by a court.

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And then the third element is, you

know, what just feels right and

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what you're willing to agree to.

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And everyone balances those different, you

know, some clients really feel like, well,

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you know what the law says feels right to

me and I wanna stick and kind of be sort

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of in line with what a court would do.

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And other people are able to say,

even though I understand that's what

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a court would do, I'm comfortable

doing something different.

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So balancing those three

things are what I feel like.

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All clients should do, whether they

have legal representation or not.

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Understanding the law is kind of key.

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Speaker: I, I so agree.

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And that's where, and I know it's

hard, you're going through a hard time.

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Probably the last thing you wanna do is

like, listen to a podcast about divorce.

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Or, you know, some people want to,

and some people wanna bury their head

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in the sand, but if you can take that

extra effort, I know so many people

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that are so sorry that they didn't

put more effort into their divorce

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because they just wanted to get it done.

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And so I love that you said that.

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So the facts.

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One is the facts, two is the law,

and three is what feels right.

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Your gut, you know?

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Yeah.

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And when you can work together.

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That's amazing.

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And Kimberly, I want you to know that

I too have those clients where I don't

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feel like mediation is a good fit.

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There are clients where maybe one person

doesn't feel like they have a voice.

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Uh, you know, maybe there one person just

feels like they need to be represented.

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So I agree that we love those attorneys.

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We need attorneys.

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Um, I mean, I would, I always recommend

it even when they have a real cordial

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situation, just to have someone, you

know, look through the paperwork and,

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and another set of eyeballs on it,

because I'm not doing that for them.

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Speaker 2: I absolutely agree, and

there are, you know, there are those

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cases in which, like you said, they

come to me for an amicable situ, you

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know, settlement or for mediation and

they don't want attorneys involved.

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And I, I think the best thing we can do

as professionals is be honest about the

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type of support that they need, right?

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We should not be pushing more

support than they need because

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everyone wants to be cost conscious.

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I don't care how much somebody

might have in assets or resources.

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Spending it on your divorce is

not what anybody wants to do.

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So we wanna be cost effective and

efficient, but getting the right support

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and the right education is kind of key,

I think for, for anyone going through it.

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Speaker: Amen.

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It's, it's so important, and I

do love it when couples can work

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together when they have kids.

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I don't know if you've seen that a

lot, but I, oh, I highly advocate

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for people working together.

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I don't know Kimberly, I don't

have divorce in my background.

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Um, you know, I just, I've

been through hard things, but I

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haven't been through a divorce.

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Yep.

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Uh, I say I have had near near

divorce, divorce experiences.

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I think anybody has, almost everyone has.

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Yeah.

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Yes, yes, I agree.

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But have you experienced

it personally in your life?

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Speaker 2: No, it's, that is

a great question actually.

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No, I, I am not, I know there are a lot

of professionals who feel sort of called

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to this work because of their own personal

experiences, which I think is, can be

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really valuable for clients to have that

sort of personal connection with, you

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know, a professional who may have gone

through some of the things that they have.

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Um, I do not personally have it in

my experience, or really even in

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my extended family, I'm not mm-hmm.

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A child of divorce.

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Um, I really did fall into this work.

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As I said, I wasn't even planning as

a lawyer, you know, as a baby lawyer.

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I did not have family law in my future.

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That was not what I was planning on doing.

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Um, I fell into it because

of really, I feel like the

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meaningful connections mm-hmm.

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That I can make for clients and it.

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It's so much more personal, the

outcomes that we're working on than

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any other law, I feel like in, in my

view, you know, maybe criminal law.

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But, um, you know, when I used to

do business work and my clients were

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either business owners or, you know,

the, the legal representation of

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a company and, you know, if things

went well or things didn't go well,

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you know, maybe it impacted their.

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Year end bonus, but it didn't

impact their lives in the

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same way that family law does.

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And so, you know, I'm a parent.

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I, I think I pride myself on quality

relationships, healthy relationships,

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raising kids in really great environments.

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That doesn't always mean

one nuclear household.

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It just means areas in

which the kids can thrive.

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And so part of me feels

drawn to just helping.

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Conflictual situations or situations that

don't feel right, get to a better spot.

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Um, I come from a family actually

in the medical field and so

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I've often sort of adapted the

hippocratic oath of Do no harm.

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Yeah.

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And so many times I feel like divorce if

you end up in a conflictual litigation.

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You know, situation, it often gets

worse before it gets better, and I

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just sort of vowed that I wanted to

do this work in a manner that by the

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time one client or both clients came to

me and said, we wanna move forward in

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separating our families or divorcing,

I wanted that to be the low point and

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say, okay, you've made this decision.

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What can I do to now

help the rest of this?

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Process be moving towards better.

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And I, I genuinely feel like

that's what I've tried to do.

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That's my mission with everything

that I'm doing now, is just to

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continue that, do no harm, and

help people get to a better spot.

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Speaker: I love that.

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I, and I, I too, I wanna be the

starting block to a better life.

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From that point, I wanna just move

forward and I wanna help them through

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this hard time because it's not gonna be

easy, but when you do it well, it can be.

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Kind of beautiful and creative

and um, and people can feel really

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good about it, which is doing

divorce differently, isn't it?

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It really

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Speaker 2: is.

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And it's, I always say it's taking

the clients where they're at.

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Um, I don't know how much you, so in the

collaborative, you know, world Stew Webb.

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Started collaborative

many, many years ago.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I know him quite well, but

there's this story about the very

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first collaborative divorce that

he did and it was beautiful and

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it all worked out really well.

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And at the end of it, the clients

who, you know, both had attorneys

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and had worked out this resolution,

they turned to him and they sort

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of said like, what happens now?

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Like, they were waiting for some

sort of like ceremony and he just

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made one up and he brought in a.

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And he took the plant and he separated

it into two smaller plants and

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they each planted their own plant.

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That sort of came from something

together and turned into beautiful

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new little life forms and stuff.

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And it was just his, you know, he was

following kind of his Buddhist ways of

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like, whatever the clients need, we wanna

provide for them, because I do feel like

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they can move into something that can

be, you know, really beautiful or mm-hmm.

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At a minimum, it's not

as bad as I think people.

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Worry about or how it can

go if, if you don't have the

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right professionals involved.

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Yeah,

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Speaker: exactly.

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It truly can be an opportunity,

a huge opportunity for growth.

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Okay, so now I wanna ask you more about

part wise, I did get on that website.

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So tell people, and I'll have it in the

show notes, Kimberly, if they wanna take

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a look at this, how do they find it?

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Speaker 2: Yes, so it is, um,

part wise, which is part dash

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wise, so just www part-wise.com.

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Um, and part wise came about a

little bit during Covid, and then

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afterwards I was finding more and

more clients who were coming to me.

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Terribly uneducated, um,

or, or almost mm-hmm.

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Pointed in the wrong direction

in an effort to learn more.

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Mm-hmm.

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Um, and certainly in today's society, like

you can jump online and you can Google

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any question and you will get an answer.

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Whether or not it's an accurate answer

or not is, is left up to interpretation.

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So I started thinking about.

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Sort of anyone who is thinking

about divorce, going through it or

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supporting someone else as they're

going through it, what would be most

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helpful to them in those earlier stages?

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Uh, and so education, I mean, I'm,

I'm a sucker for education, as

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you can tell by me continuing, you

know, divorce is really financial.

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Why don't I go spend a year

getting a financial degree?

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Yeah.

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Um, and I just felt like nobody will

be at a deficit by learning more.

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And so if I could provide an easy to use.

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Available 24 hours a day resource.

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That is really kind of everything

you could ever want to know

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about divorce in one place.

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Uh, that was the concept and that

that's what's behind part wise.

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So it is really that, it's a,

it's a divorce education resource.

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It's only education.

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It's not selling, it's subscription based.

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So you get on it and you, there is a cost

associated with excess, but we're not.

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Nobody's gonna call you.

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You're not hiring anybody,

there's no services involved.

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You're not getting divorced on the site.

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Mm-hmm.

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But you can walk through either in a very

linear way, every element of divorce,

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or you can just search and, and hang

out in kind of whatever areas you want.

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Whatever your hot button questions

might be, you can find any

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answers that you want on par wise,

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Speaker: gosh, that is

such a great resource.

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And you know, we were just

telling people to get educated.

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What better way?

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Then to go to something, what,

what made you call it part wise?

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Speaker 2: Um, honestly, my daughter

and I were on a vacation and we

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:

were hanging out in the pool and

we said, let's come up with a name.

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And we spent about an hour throwing

together all different words and uhhuh.

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We would find great names and

then we would look 'em up and be

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like, oh, it's already, somebody's

already got that name, or somebody's

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all got this name right, but.

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But it, once we landed on it, I actually

love the name because it really mm-hmm.

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Is about separating with education

and just knowing what you're doing.

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Um, and I think for people who are

scared and worried and making these

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really important, big decisions mm-hmm.

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Just feeling a little bit more confident

and a little bit more prepared to

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enter into those conversations.

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So, you know, it's not

in lieu of an attorney.

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In fact, there's a whole section

about how to determine if you need

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an attorney, how to find one, how to

work efficiently with an attorney, um,

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all of the other professionals, you

know, what is a divorce coach, what

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is A-C-D-F-A, and how can you mm-hmm.

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Use one.

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Mm-hmm.

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Everything is kind of there and then

it gets into the nuts and bolts, you

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know, how do you deal with retirement

or value your house or support?

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There's template.

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I saw there were some

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Speaker: financial aspects there.

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I mean, do you actually have

spreadsheets that people can

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work through for their budgets?

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Yeah.

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Speaker 2: There's templates in

there, and then there's content

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that walks you through everything.

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I mean, what is a budget?

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What is everything you might

wanna consider in a budget?

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Um, and it, it gets into the nuts and

bolts and it's sort of, it's provided at

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different del So there is a video that,

that might be three or four minutes long.

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There's sort of an outline with bullet

points and maybe some worksheets.

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And then there is sort

of the textbook version.

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If you wanna read paragraphs

and paragraphs, you can mm-hmm.

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The goal is to really provide it in ways

that will be most useful for the user.

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Um, and really something you can bookmark

and come back and save the pieces that

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are gonna be most relevant to you and,

and skip the parts that just don't

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:

really matter at that point in time.

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Speaker: Right, right.

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Gosh, that sounds good.

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:

Have you thought about doing

an app or do you have Um,

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Speaker 2: we're.

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It, it is in process of becoming mobile,

you know, having a mobile app for it.

424

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Yeah.

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Um, and then there's also the

newest piece that we're adding

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because it is nationwide.

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Speaker: That's, that was

gonna be my next question.

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So it's not just Minnesota.

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Speaker 2: No, it is not just

Minnesota, it's nationwide.

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:

Um, but because, you know, I'm not

providing legal advice on it, right?

431

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It's legal education.

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Um, right now it's somewhat general.

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The content on there, differentiating

between what type of state you're in.

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So if you're in an equitable

state or community property state,

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it gives you that background.

436

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Um, we are in the process of adding state

specific information, so there will be.

437

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If you get onto it and you're in

Iowa, there will be a page for

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Iowa as well as resources and where

to go in that state specifically.

439

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So within.

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I'm gonna give myself 30 to 60 days.

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It'll all be up.

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Right now we're starting, um, we've been,

you know, we've got 15 or 20 states dones.

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Speaker: That is so amazing.

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That's a lot of work because I know

I looked into that, um, as far,

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because I have that online course for

a do it yourself divorce course and.

446

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That it's very detailed, but I

think that part wise, I think you

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can be general when you're giving

the information about divorce.

448

:

I think that someone from Arkansas

that comes in and listens to

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or goes on part wise because

there's not that much different.

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You know what I mean?

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Like I think that the

information kinda stands firm.

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So I can see where you could go national.

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Yeah, and it

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Speaker 2: does, and in every

state in the US you can contract

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around what the court would do.

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So, you know, even if your law says

X, you could come to part wise and

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realize here are some common ways.

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You know, for example, on

part wise, we have, uh, really

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:

specific examples on retirement.

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Here are different ways

to deal with retirement.

461

:

Um, so you can look at all that and

regardless of what your state would do, as

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long as you're educated and know what your

state would do, you might like some of the

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ideas that are on part wise and be able to

say, this is how we're agreeing to do it.

464

:

Um, and the other piece, as you know.

465

:

So many people, I mean, it's

50% in many states mm-hmm.

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Are pro se or unrepresented.

467

:

Yeah.

468

:

So this provides an opportunity for

the people who feel like they don't

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need attorneys or don't wanna pay for

attorneys, or whatever their reason

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may be for representing themselves.

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This is a really cost-effective way

to just get some information and

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:

feel a little bit more confident in

the decisions that they're making.

473

:

Speaker: Right.

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:

Well, and Kimberly, I even

think it's a great idea if.

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You're both hiring attorneys, you're

gonna save money if you are educated, your

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attorney's not going to have to educate

you and you're not gonna have to spend

477

:

that hourly fee getting information that

you can find on a place like part wise.

478

:

So I love that you're doing that.

479

:

Um, it just seems like such

a helpful thing for people.

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:

So I love that you've taken your life.

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And you've, you know, real, really,

I, I, I love people who serve, you

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:

know, you're here to serve other people

and help them through a hard time.

483

:

So I'm, so, I feel so blessed

to have talked to you today.

484

:

Um, just you Yeah.

485

:

And I am, I'm excited.

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To, because even in my mediation practice,

I love people to have, I try to give

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:

them as much information as I can before

because I want them to come in having an

488

:

idea of what they can talk about regarding

finances or what to do about the home.

489

:

So, um, I think it's gonna be a

great resource for my clients too.

490

:

Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.

491

:

And we do, we have attorneys now who

are partnering with us who are giving

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:

a discount on their startup costs.

493

:

You know, a lot of attorneys

have a startup cost.

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:

We'll give a discount if they get a

membership to, part wise, because like

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:

you said, I always say there is no

attorney or or any professional who

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:

is available to you 24 hours a day.

497

:

For, you know, a very nominal cost, right?

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:

It's just not there.

499

:

But here, you know, if you have your

question at one in the morning that's

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:

keeping you up at night, jump on here.

501

:

Yeah.

502

:

There's 450 glossary terms.

503

:

There's short question and answers.

504

:

That's kind of every

question you could think of.

505

:

And if it's not on there, ask it

and we will answer it for you.

506

:

And it'll be up there before you can, you

know, before you get too nervous about it.

507

:

So it really, oh, I love that.

508

:

To enhance the work that people

are doing, even with professionals.

509

:

Speaker: Yeah.

510

:

So you're actually responsive on it.

511

:

It's not, I mean, you get in

there and answer questions,

512

:

people can connect with you.

513

:

Speaker 2: Yes, we try to be, um,

and we've got a social media presence

514

:

as well that we're building up, that

we're trying to be responsive to.

515

:

But there are so only so

many hours in the day.

516

:

I know.

517

:

So it's usually a slow response,

but within a day or two you

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:

will get answers to question.

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:

I don't think that's

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:

Speaker: that slow.

521

:

Kimberly, I think it's wonderful

what you're doing and I can't wait

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:

to chat with you more about it.

523

:

And listeners, I'm gonna put

your connections on social.

524

:

I know we met on LinkedIn, so Yes, we did.

525

:

Check out part wise and, and

Kimberly Miller and Kimberly,

526

:

thank you so much for being here.

527

:

Speaker 2: Thank you so much.

528

:

This was great.

529

:

Speaker: Take care.

530

:

You too.

Listen for free

Show artwork for Doing Divorce Different
A Podcast Guide to Doing Divorce Differently

About the Podcast

Doing Divorce Different A Podcast Guide to Doing Divorce Differently
Divorce, co-parenting, menopause, marriage, and starting over after 40—Doing Divorce Different is your guide to a healthy, faith filled life transition.

Hosted by Family Law Attorney and Mediator Lesa Koski, Doing Divorce Different is a candid, empowering podcast designed to take the fear out of divorce and guide you toward peace—whether you’re navigating a split, working to stay married, or rebuilding a better life after a major transition. Each week, Lesa brings heart-centered legal insight, emotional support, and holistic wisdom to help you heal, grow, and thrive.

We cover everything from amicable divorce and co-parenting strategies to parenting plans that actually work and support kids in thriving through change. You’ll learn how to prepare for marriage with prenups, revisit your relationship with post-nuptial agreements, and understand what it really takes to stay married or rekindle love after a rough season. If you're in the midst of a grey divorce, wondering how to not get divorced, or questioning whether love can be found again, this show is for you.

Lesa also explores the emotional and physical changes that often accompany midlife and major life shifts. From navigating the impact of menopause on your health, marriage, and mood, to dealing with the loneliness that can come after divorce or empty nesting, you’ll find honest conversations that don’t shy away from real-life challenges. And for those of you in your 40s, 50s, or beyond, you’ll discover what it means to truly build a better life after 40.

Health and wellness are deeply integrated into this journey. Lesa shares insights on the benefits of rest, joy, nutrition, fasting, protein, and bone health, along with the power of movement, community, and exercise to support mental clarity and physical strength. You’ll learn how to take care of yourself with intention—because healing isn’t just emotional, it’s also biological.

Mindset work and self-coaching are recurring tools offered in episodes to help you reframe your story and shift from fear to freedom. And through it all, the show honors the role of faith, spiritual surrender, and letting God lead you through every season. Whether you're leaning into your relationship with God for the first time or deepening a lifelong practice, you’ll hear how surrender can bring peace even in the hardest moments.

You’ll hear real stories from people who have done divorce differently, saved their marriages, or found new love and purpose on the other side. Lesa also brings in conversations about marriages that have stood the test of time, co-parenting through complex seasons, and the realities of parenting after separation while maintaining stability for your kids.

This is not just a podcast about divorce. Doing Divorce Different is about taking back your life, rewriting your future, and trusting that you’re not starting over, you’re starting better. If you’re craving practical advice, soul-level encouragement, and real conversations about creating a healthy, joyful, purpose-driven life, you’ve found your community.

Subscribe now and join Lesa Koski for weekly episodes that will help you grow stronger in your relationships, your health, and your faith, no matter where you’re starting from.

About the Host:
I’ve spent over 25 years helping families navigate amicable divorce as a lawyer and mediator, always focused on protecting what matters most—your kids and your peace of mind. But my mission has expanded. Today, I support women over 40 not just through endings, but in building stronger relationships—and sometimes even saving their marriages. I’m a breast cancer survivor, a cowgirl at heart, a wellness advocate, and a follower of Jesus. My life and faith fuel my passion for helping women thrive.

About your host

Profile picture for Lesa Koski

Lesa Koski