The Divorced Divorce Attorney

Blog 1: The Divorced Divorce Attorney

I have been in the divorce business for a little over fourteen years.  I started as a paralegal at a small firm in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and handled divorce files for four years there.  When I was in my second year of law school, I started as a law clerk doing research and writing for Barry Zisser, Elliot Zisser, Don Brown, Nancy Nowlis and Brian Cabrey.  I was lucky enough for them to keep me after I graduated and I have now been practicing as an attorney for a little over seven years.  Over the past fourteen years, I have worked with hundreds of clients and felt that I had a firm grip on the issues that people encounter in divorces.  I thought I had learned to strike a pretty good balance in being compassionate while still managing clients and their expectations.  It wasn’t until I became a mother myself that I became a little more sensitive to children’s issues. Then, it wasn’t until I went through my own divorce that I realized things I thought were minor were really kind of major when viewing them through the eyes of someone going through a divorce.

Today, I was having a discussion with a judge and an opposing attorney.  We were talking about communication and how important it is that two parents get past their hang ups about the divorce and put the children first.  I shared that I felt I was lucky.  My ex-husband and I aren’t buddies.  I would say that we don’t even get along that well.  However, he knows that if he needs to talk about our son or if he needs help with our son, he can call me and I won’t backhand him with some motion about how incompetent he is the following week.  I know that if I need him to pick up our son from school on two Thursdays in a row, that are supposed to be my Thursdays, he isn’t going to tell me it is my problem and he isn’t going to sling it in my face that I am some kind of absentee mother that puts my career before our son.  Everyday issues that we, two people who couldn’t save our marriage and two people that don’t even like each other sometimes, work out without issue are turned into motions and brought into the courts for judges to decide.  The judges who manage several hundred files at one time and who might rule on issues involving egregious child abuse in the same day that someone wants them to decide whether it is appropriate for a 7 year old to have a cellular phone.

The judge I was speaking to and my opposing counsel both agreed that I was not typical.  Opposing counsel suggested, as we were walking out of the courthouse together, that I should start a blog to share my experience and maybe help others through the difficulties of divorce.

I’m certainly not perfect and I’m sure that some people will disagree with how I choose to handle my life but here I am, starting a blog and hoping that something that I post will be helpful to someone.  Love, Cori

Corrine Bylund, Esquire
Zisser, Brown, Nowlis, & Cabrey P.A.
One Independent Drive #3306
Jacksonville, FL 32202
www.zisser.net