My law practice in Columbia, South Carolina, is dedicated to guiding people through the legal issues associated with the three most challenging life transitions there are: Divorce, Death, and Disability. Ideally, legal trouble is avoided through preventive measures such as good estate and elder care planning, good attention to marriage health, documents such as prenups, and by reaching agreement outside of court for issues such as marital separation agreements, family adoptions, care for aging parents, etc. Because I try to be the best I can be for families approaching these issues in a peaceable way, I do not typically accept clients whose primary aim is to engage in contested court litigation. In addition to being an attorney, I am an advanced practice level family mediator with significant training in family systems and special types of mediation such as elder mediation, church congregational mediation, and mediation of special education cases, and I am a certified healthy congregations facilitator. Many divorcing couples, families, and groups seek my services as a mediator as a first resort rather than a last resort, when they hope to find fair and sustainable solutions to complex issues and also hope to avoid the emotional pain, anxiety, and expense of contested court litigation.