Practice Areas & Industries: Akerman Senterfitt

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Managing the Legal Aspects of Relationships While the details of divorce, adoption, dependency, and guardianship issues demand that your attorney be a skilled legal practitioner, the emotional aspects require that he or she also be a compassionate and understanding individual. Akerman's family law attorneys have all come to this practice with a deeply personal commitment to helping their clients resolve such matters in a way that safeguards not only their material well being, but results in spiritual comfort as well. And that resolve is particularly applicable where the interests of children are concerned.

Services Available

The areas of practice covered under the heading of Family and Marital Law include:

• Elder Law
• Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements
• Dissolution of Marriage
• Alternative Relationships

In addition to these areas, we provide services in adoption, name changes, dependency (for children in need of state services), and other areas not specifically described below.

The aging of our population has resulted in a rapidly growing and largely underserved need for attorneys who are knowledgeable in the laws that apply to the care and disposition of senior citizens. Akerman Senterfitt is one of the few large law firms with an attorney who is nationally recognized in this practice. Richard Milstein has spent many years developing an understanding of, and helping to craft, the applicable body of law.

Consider this common scenario. You are in your fifties and have parent(s) who have lost their ability to make decisions for themselves and to manage their financial affairs. You must place them, protect their assets, and secure needed medical and social services for them. Sometimes, you may feel that your parent(s)are being physically abused or financially manipulated. How do you manage the time consuming, often highly frustrating and bureaucratic process of protecting their interests and caring for them without having to neglect your own affairs and immediate family?

Akerman Senterfitt is proud of its ability to represent your interests in such situations. We can advise and represent you in every aspect of these circumstances. If a guardian must be appointed, we are qualified and experienced in working with you throughout the process, and in the subsequent representation of the guardian, as required by law. What makes Akerman different from the typical large law firm is that we offer a broad-based practice in family law and also in probate and guardianship issues. This is critical in matters of elder care, because it lies at the crossroads between these areas.

Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are important tools in the effort to manage family wealth and business interests. If you are the family head or business owner, you should be aware that such contracts are intended not only for your individual use. When your children or grandchildren marry, are you prepared for the dilution of assets, and perhaps loss of control over your business? And you should know that in order for existing agreements to maintain their validity they must be revisited periodically and as financial circumstances change.

Every such arrangement is a unique contract that takes into account the complex details of the parties' financial and personal situations.

At Akerman we offer our clients the opportunity to move on with their lives while we take them through the process of divorce. We aim to achieve the most efficient and least expensive dissolution of a marriage.

Just as every marriage is unique, so is every divorce. By law, couples seeking to dissolve their marriages must first mediate the issues in an effort to reach an equitable resolution or, failing that, to more clearly articulate the areas of disagreement. Our objective is to reach a settlement at this early stage of the matter wherever possible, preserving the assets, minimizing the emotional burden, and limiting the negative impacts on any children involved.

Should a case proceed to trial, we will represent our client's interests with resolve and reason. And we find that this reasonableness, along with our reputation, has a positive effect on opposing counsel, minimizing rancor and speeding resolution.

Although many of our clients are individuals with a high profile in the community, a significant percentage of our cases involve people of average means and lifestyle. But should a case involve substantial assets, the breadth of our practice, including tax, estate planning, real estate, bankruptcy, and other departments, means that the entire matter can be handled efficiently by one firm.

Following divorce, it may be that the judgment requires enforcement or modification in terms of alimony, child support, visitation rights, or other matters. We stand with our clients in seeking any reasonable accommodation allowable under the law.

It may also be necessary to redraft a will or address other testamentary issues, IRA's, trusts, and beneficiary changes. Again, the breadth of our practice allows us to manage all of these matters, which reduces the billable time required for another attorney to become familiar with the particular circumstances.

While our society has come a long way in its attitude toward alternative, non-traditional relationships, including same sex partners and other unmarried cohabitants, the laws have not yet accorded these couples the same status and protections that belong to married men and women.

What happens when the relationship ends, or when a long-term partner dies? The same emotional and economic issues exist as for opposite-sex married couples. But in the absence of a pre-existing property agreement spelling out the division of assets, the rights of the partners are not clearly defined, and lengthy litigation may be required to reach a resolution.

We help clients to prepare for problems like these and other issues that may arise during the relationship. A healthcare surrogate form can be prepared in order to appoint one person to act as the decision maker on behalf of the other. Power of attorney papers can provide for the management of another's affairs. If preferred, this can be a springing power of attorney, which only becomes active in the event of a particular circumstance, such as loss of capacity or death.

We recognize that the parties in an alternative partnership have specific concerns not shared by the majority of our population. We are pleased to discuss any relevant issue in this regard, and to help our clients achieve peace of mind in their legal and financial affairs.