My guests are Norman Solovay and Shari Gordon. and our subject is “Divorce American Style.” conflict resolution and the consequences for the American family,

Shari Gordon, a 1985 graduate of Union University at Albany Law School, has been practicing law in excess of 24 years, and is currently a member of the Law Offices of Shari R. Gordon located in Yorktown Heights, New York, a firm concentrating in matrimonial litigation and divorce mediation.  Shari earned the Gabrielli Best Brief Award while attending Union University at Albany Law School in 1984, and assisted in the preparation of, and was acknowledged by the author of, the four volume treatise “New York Matrimonial Law and Practice”, by Timothy M. Tippins.  Shari also has an extensive background in criminal defense as a former Senior Staff Trial Counsel with the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society, Bronx County. Shari was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society in 1982. She is presently co-Chair of the Family, Children and Court’s Committee for the Westchester Women’s Bar Association and co-Chair of the Reproductive Rights Committee for the Women’s Bar of the State of New York. She resides in Croton-on-Hudson with her two sons, Samuel and Noah. 

              


Norman Solovay chairs the Alternative Dispute Resolution practice at McLaughlin & Stern, one of New York's few old-line firms to have set up a separate department for trying first to settle cases before rushing into court with them.  As the author of several books in the field he has become a leading proponent and practioner not only of the standbys of mediation and arbitration, which he wrote about initially, but a recognized leader in efforts to educate the Bar regarding new, evolving and/or revived settlement techniques such as collaborative law, one of the most expanding methods utilized to settle divorces amicably. 
 
Following receipt of his BA Degree from Cornell and service as an officer in the Korean War, he attended Columbia Law School were he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. After joining the Rosenman Colin law firm out of law school, Mr. Solovay left and became Law Secretary to Charles D. Breitel then still at the Appellate Division prior to his elevation to Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Following that, Mr. Solovay came to Holtzmann, Wise & Shepard where he served for many years as head of its litigation department.  While his primary work there was the conduct of litigations of all kinds, including some high profile divorces, it was his handling of a number of major international arbitrations that provided his first exposure to the world of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and caused him to write the first of his books. . 
  
After the dissolution of the Holtzmann firm, he founded Solovay, Marshall & Edlin with his son, Michael Solovay.  While still there he authored The Internet & Alternate Dispute Resolution:  Untangling the Web, dealing with various forms of ADR and the internet. When Michael's expanding corporate department was sought and acquired by a giant law firm, Mr Solovay was freed to devote more time to his ADR work.  Mr. Solovay is an active member of the NY State Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section, where he chairs its Collaborative Law Committee, and of the New York City Bar Association's ADR Committee. He has since, in addition to chairing his present firm’s' Dispute Resolution practice,  become actively involved in organizing, presenting and participating in various Bar Association ADR programs, as well as in programs abroad, most recently in India.  

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