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Collaborative Divorce / Team Assembly
Team Assembly · Virginia
The right people in the right room.
A collaborative case is more than two lawyers. It is a team built around your family: a financial neutral, a mental health professional, and a child specialist when there are children. We help you assemble only the professionals your situation actually needs.
First call is a conversation, not a commitment.
The Short Answer
A collaborative team usually includes both spouses' attorneys, a financial neutral, a mental health professional, and a child specialist when there are children. The neutrals serve both parties at once. The team is built to fit your case, so a simpler matter may need fewer people than a complex one.
How It Works
A team, not two opposing camps.
In a litigated divorce, every professional is hired to fight for one side. Two financial experts reach two different numbers. Two custody evaluators reach two different conclusions. Collaborative divorce flips that. Instead of duplicating and dueling, the process builds a single team around the family, where each professional contributes their expertise toward one shared outcome.
Who sits at the table
You and your spouse each keep your own attorney, for private advice and advocacy. Around them, the case adds neutral professionals who serve both of you. A financial neutral builds the money picture. A mental health professional, often called a divorce coach, helps the conversations stay productive. And when children are involved, a child specialist brings their needs into the room. Everyone is working toward the same settlement.
The financial neutral
This is usually the most valuable hire. One shared accountant or financial planner gathers the incomes, assets, debts, retirement accounts, and projections, and builds a single picture both sides trust. That replaces the expensive, adversarial discovery of litigation, where each side pays separately to assemble and then attack the same numbers. One trusted set of figures saves money and lowers the temperature.
The coach and the child specialist
The mental health professional is not there to provide therapy. They are there to keep communication on track, help both parties manage the hard moments, and keep meetings from derailing. The child specialist, when needed, makes sure the parenting plan reflects how children actually live and develop, rather than abstract legal categories, without ever putting a child in the middle.
Built to fit, not to pad
Not every case needs every professional. A straightforward matter might use only the attorneys and a financial neutral. A case with significant assets, or with children who have real needs, calls for the fuller team. Part of our job at the start is helping you assemble the right team for your situation, not the largest one.
Your attorneySeparate for each spouse; private advice and advocacy throughout.
Financial neutralOne shared expert who builds the full money picture for both.
Mental health proA coach who keeps communication productive, not a therapist.
Child specialistBrings children's needs into the plan, when there are children.
SourceVirginia Collaborative Law Procedures Act, Va. Code §§ 20-168 to 20-187.
One Set Of Numbers, Not Two
The shared financial neutral is often where collaborative saves the most. Instead of two experts building and attacking the same figures, one trusted professional builds a picture everyone relies on. It costs less, and it lowers the temperature of the whole case.
Source: Va. Code §§ 20-168 to 20-187
Alisa Chunephisal, Esq.Founding Partner
Attorney Insight
A few honest things about the team.
"The shared financial neutral is the moment people stop fighting over the numbers and start solving the actual problem."
When clients first hear that they will share a financial expert with their spouse, some flinch. They are used to the idea that everyone needs their own hired gun. But once one neutral lays out a clear, honest picture of the finances that both sides accept, the whole tone changes. The argument stops being about whose accountant is right and starts being about how to divide a reality everyone agrees on. I help clients build a team that fits their case, no more and no less, and I am candid about which professionals will actually earn their keep. The goal is a team that solves problems, not one that runs up a bill.
Questions Families Ask
Plain answers about the team.
These are the questions clients ask most about who is involved. If yours is not here, we are happy to answer it directly.
Have a specific question?
Call 571.260.0999 or send us a message.
Who is on a collaborative divorce team?
A collaborative team usually includes both spouses' attorneys, a financial neutral, a mental health professional often called a divorce coach, and a child specialist when there are children.
Each professional contributes their own expertise toward a single shared settlement.
What does the financial neutral do?
The financial neutral is one shared accountant or financial planner who works for both parties. They build a single, clear picture of incomes, assets, debts, retirement, and projections, instead of each side paying separately for duplicative discovery.
Do we have to use every professional?
No. The team is built to fit your case. A simpler matter may need only the attorneys and a financial neutral, while complex finances or children's needs may call for the full team. We help you assemble only the professionals your situation actually requires.
Are the team professionals shared or separate?
The financial neutral, the mental health professional, and the child specialist are neutral and serve both parties at once. Only the attorneys are separate, with each spouse keeping their own lawyer for private advice and advocacy throughout the process.
When You Are Ready
Let's build the right team for your family.
Tell us about your situation and we will help you decide which professionals your case actually needs, so the team fits your family rather than padding the bill. Three offices across Northern Virginia, one phone number.