Commentary on Interdisciplinary Teamwork in Family Law Practice

• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Author: Kathleen Zumpano,Nancy Retsinas
• Date: 01 July 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12364

COMMENTARY ON INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMWORK IN FAMILY

LAW PRACTICE

Nancy Retsinas and Kathleen Zumpano

This commentary discusses and expands upon Mosten and Traumm’s extraordinary work on interdisciplinary teams. Focus-

ing on the continuum between independence and interdependence in team formation, we explore the benefits of team mem-

bers’shared responsibility and highlight potential challenges. We emphasize that regardless of where a team may fall on the

continuum, establishing and adhering to a strong structure results in increased practitioner satisfaction and better client out-

comes. This commentary identifies five best practices that promote highly functioning teams and urges family law practi-

tioners to seek more advanced interdisciplinary team training opportunities.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

•The relationship between team functioning and individual practitioners is important to professional satisfaction and cli-

ent outcomes.

•On the continuum of independence and interdependence, personal knowledge of where an individual member falls on

this continuum is paramount to successful teamwork.

•Shared responsibility among team members provides many benefits and some challenges.

•We highlight the need for strong team structure and provide action items for effective teamwork.

Keywords: Case Management; Co-Mediation; Collaborative Divorce; Informed Consent; Intake Process; Mediation;

Teams; and Training.

This is an exciting time in the field of dispute resolution. Collaborative problem solving is evolv-

ing rapidly, and practitioners more and more are exploring dynamic dispute resolution models

across multiple disciplines that carry with them the promise of better client outcomes, higher pro-

fessional satisfaction, and the opportunity to flourish in a family law practice that aligns with the

practitioner’s personal values.

Mosten and Traum

1

have made significant contributions to the field in their research on team for-

mation and function and how various models in business and health care can be successfully

adapted to family law. Their research clarifies the conversation about how the way a team functions

can foretell the successes and challenges practitioners face in the life cycle of a family law matter.

As collaborative practitioners and trainers from different disciplines who work with each other in

a variety of team models, we spend a lot of time thinking about how teams function best and refin-

ing our teamwork models. For us, it begins and ends with the interplay between “independent

teams”and “interdependent teams,”Both have benefits to a well-functioning team as a whole, but

only truly interdependent teams require shared responsibility from all members of the team. Addi-

tionally, only teams operating under this premise can fully experience the potential that working

with others as co-equals in a healthy, well-functioning team can offer.

We experience many benefits of shared responsibility. For one, it stretches our default thought

process that comes from a particular professional’s educational background. Further, it calls us to

explore different approaches to defining the presenting problem and exploring solutions to that

problem. Finally, it fundamentally changes the way we look at all our cases because we now know

how important a cross-disciplinary approach is to problem solving. These benefits move us closer

Correspondence: Kathleen@kathleenzumpano.com; nancy@nancyretsinas.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 56 No. 3, July 2018 470–473

© 2018 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts