Colorado Mediator
Lawrence F. King, J.D.
Divorce Resolutions®, Colorado Center for
Divorce Mediation™’s founding
mediator and director is Lawrence F. King, J.D.
Larry's Educational
& Professional Background
 A summa cum laude graduate of
Colorado College, Larry earned his law degree at the
University of California, Davis, where he earned distinction
as an editor
of the Law
Review.
Upon graduation, Larry
received an appointment
as
a judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Norman Berman, Judge,
Colorado Court of Appeals. He returned to Colorado for
this appointment and became a licensed Colorado
attorney. He continued in public law as a
trial attorney and then
supervising prosecutor for the Boulder,
Colorado
District Attorney’s Office. After entering private practice,
Larry served as a part-time Colorado Municipal Court Judge, and
then limited his representation for many years, solely to divorce and family
law cases.
Throughout his experience as a matrimonial
attorney, Larry grew steadily more disenchanted with the
adversarial system as it applied to Colorado divorce and family law.
Larry began to transform his family law practice. He undertook
formal training in divorce and custody mediation at the
renowned CDR program in Boulder, Colorado. He founded his
mediation practice, Divorce
Resolutions®, in 1992, and his family law practice then
evolved to “emphasize” mediation for several years. In 1995,
he made the decision to limit his work solely to Colorado
divorce and family mediation. Larry has assisted more than two
thousand couples through the process of
mediating their Colorado divorce, family or parenting dispute.
As
Professional Colorado
Mediator
In addition to participating in the
Colorado attorney, mediator and family professionals’ organizations
mentioned previously, Larry is a member of the Denver,
Colorado
Metropolitan and
Boulder, Colorado Interdisciplinary Committees on Child
Custody (a consortium of Colorado professionals of various backgrounds
concerned with issues involving children and parental
responsibility). Larry is the Co-Coordinator
of the Colorado Council of Mediators ("CCMO") Family Law Mediator Provider List for
Colorado's 17th
Judicial District (Adams County).
Larry has conducted workshops or taken
part in special speaking engagements at various professional
events hosted by such organizations, including the statewide
CCMO Conference, the Family Law Section program of the
state Colorado Bar Convention, and the Colorado Bench and Bar
Family Law Institute. He has presented or assisted in
planning of several past years’ Colorado Attorney Mediator Dialogues
hosted by CCMO and the CBA. He has led training for the City
of Westminster, Colorado on negotiation styles and
mediation-related topics. Larry has also taught at
workshops for Colorado's family law paralegals and at local
universities on family and divorce
mediation.
Larry has been invited and participated
on numerous occasions as one of a panel of Colorado judges,
family law attorneys,
psychologists and mediators discussing current divorce and
related issues in
Colorado law at the Colorado Bar Association’s Family Law
Section. He has presented the divorce mediator perspective on a
similar panel of guests at CCMO’s programs concerning special
issues in the drafting and preparing of mediated divorce or
parenting agreements, and in current issues in Colorado
divorce mediation and Colorado collaborative law.
As Innovator In
Colorado Mediation Practice
Larry is recognized as an innovator in
mediation practice, especially in the use of special tools of
technology. Larry established and moderates the Colorado
Divorce Mediation Discussion List, an email consortium of
Colorado dispute resolution professionals assisting families
and couples in divorce disputes. Larry has presented workshops
at four national conventions of the Academy of Family Mediators
(AFM) and Family Mediation Section of the Association for
Conflict Resolution (ACR), and numerous state and county divorce attorney, family lawyer and mediation associations
— regarding
embracing these special tools
of technology in the everyday practice of divorce and
family mediation. Larry has shared insights as a presenter on
mediation and alternative dispute resolution practice
management for the Boulder, Colorado ADR Section, and for
the Boulder chapter of CCMO, as well.
 Larry was the principal contributing author
to the AFM’s national publication, Mediation News, in its Cybermediator
feature.
Larry (as well as Chris) is one of a very
few mediators in Colorado with specialized training and years
of
experience with powerful software which permits a divorcing or
divorced couple to understand the after-tax consequences of a
proposed settlement of financial issues. Divorce Resolutions®
has developed its own tools as well which often permit more
meaningful discussions of timesharing with children, property
division, pension valuation and child support issues. (All of
these issues, of course, must be addressed in any complete
divorce settlement.)
In 2006, Divorce Resolutions® realized Larry's long-time
vision of becoming the first family and divorce mediators in
the country to use
large flat panel television monitors in all our
mediation sessions. (In 2007, we continued the
evolution of our innovative mediation process with
further improvements to our office's technology and
resources.)
As a result, Larry and Divorce
Resolutions® are frequently asked to assist in Colorado divorces
involving very substantial assets and marital estates with
more complex property division, maintenance planning, and
retirement division issues.
Continuing Commitment to Excellence
Besides providing
workshops and training
for others, Larry also maintains an active regimen of
continuing mediation education for himself. He is a regular
host and participant in a peer review group of other
experienced Colorado divorce mediators who frequently meet to
discuss changes in the law and their profession and emerging
issues in their challenging work.
Clients’ and Professionals’ Experience with
Larry
Larry’s Colorado clients and
referring professionals appreciate his empathic skills,
resourcefulness and expertise. He excels in helping
couples create workable solutions to their Colorado divorce,
parenting and support disputes.
Here’s what Larry’s clients
have to say:
-
“In my opinion, Larry’s greatest strength as a
mediator is his ability to remain calm and focused. He
never appeared to take sides and always brought the
emphasis back to resolution and moving forward.” — R.M.
-
“Larry, you are an amazing person
with the patience of a saint! We appreciate the
professional manner in which you dealt with us . . .
never taking sides, just open and honest. Your gentle
manner and kind spirit made the difficult work of our
divorce doable! Thanks for being there when it was
tough!” — C. Sc.
-
“What I most appreciated was Larry's
quiet control of the meetings: stating up front
what was and was not helpful, his direction during each
session, the moments of private time with both of us,
and his calm professionalism.” — P.H.
-
“Mediation fosters cooperation not adversity. Larry is
highly skilled and has a sincere interest in bringing
about a fair and equitable final agreement allowing
couples to reach closure at a very difficult time in
life.” — P.R.
-
“I simply don't know how Larry maintained his neutrality. It is a gift!” — E. O.
-
“Larry, you have been awesome during
this whole process. You truly are a gifted mediator. Your
skills and knowledge will impact our lives forever.” — C. Sw.
-
“Throughout the process, Larry encouraged our spirit of
cooperation rather than making us adversaries. The
mediation process spared us and our children the
additional emotional turmoil and the cost that traditional
trial lawyers would have imposed on us. We felt, at all
times, that we were in control with a lawyer-trained mediator as
our friend and guide through a difficult process.” — R.F.
And, a Colorado divorce attorney offers the
following observations, from the perspective of experienced
counsel:
-
“I have been practicing Colorado
divorce and family law for more than twenty five
years. Larry is the finest family mediator I have ever
worked with. The clients I refer to Larry consistently
reach workable divorce and parenting resolutions. They
relate the highest praise for Larry and report that they
feel entirely comfortable and safe in mediation with
Larry and their views heard and respected by his
process. The mediated agreements Larry writes are the
best of any I have ever reviewed, as well.” — D.D.
From Larry
Larry writes the following about himself
and his approach to divorce mediation:
-
“Divorce
and family mediation is simply my life’s work and
passion. For
more than sixteen years, and now as a full-time mediator, I’ve
been fortunate to limit my professional efforts to helping
Colorado couples in the greatest of personal and family transitions
find their own answers to often challenging questions.
My many earlier years’ training and experience as
a Colorado divorce and family lawyer allow me to explore with my
clients a great range of possible approaches and solutions
that have proven to work well for others.
-
As
importantly, I am highly intuitive by nature:
I often sense what is not being said — but what
is very much at the heart of our work together. I’m incredibly fortunate:
every day in
my efforts as a Colorado family mediator, I receive much more from
my clients than I give to them.”
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“Out beyond
right-doing, and wrong-doing ... lies a field.
I will meet you there.”
- Rumi
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