POSTPONED Tampa, FL Fitting the Pieces Together - Introductory Interdisciplinary Collaborative Training and Advanced Collaborative Training

ROBERT J. MERLIN, ESQ has been practicing law for more than 40 years and he exclusively practices family law. His office is in Coral Gables, Florida. He specializes in Collaborative Family Law and other non-adversarial processes to help clients resolve their family matters without litigating. Bob is Florida Bar Board Certified in Marital and Family Law and is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator. Bob is on the Boards of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals, Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals and the Collaborative Family Law Institute and he is a member of the Collaborative Family Law Professionals of South Florida and the South Palm Beach Collaborative Law Group. Bob is the Treasurer of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and he is President-Elect of the Florida Academy of Academy of Collaborative Professionals. Bob is a Past Chair of The Florida Bar Family Law Rules Committee, and he is a past President of the Florida Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. Bob lectures regularly on Collaborative Family Law, he has written numerous articles about the Collaborative Process and he meets IACP standards as a qualified trainer of professionals in the Collaborative Process. Bob was the point person in Florida for the passage of the Florida Collaborative Law Process Act, and the adoption of the Collaborative rule of procedure and The Florida Bar Collaborative Rule of Professional Conduct, all of which went into effect on July 1, 2017. Bob has law and accounting degrees from the University of Florida. www.merlinlaw.com rmerlin@merlinlaw.com ROSEMARIE S. ROTH, ESQUIRE has practiced in the area of Family Law for the past 31 years. She specialized in Collaborative Family Law after she brought the process to Florida in 1999 and founded the state’s first practice group, the Collaborative Family Law Institute. After serving as president for ten years Rosemarie became the founding president of the Collaborative Family Law Council of Florida in 2010 and served in that capacity until 2015. In 2009 she received the Stu Webb Distinguished Service Award in Recognition of Exceptional Leadership and Devoted Service to the Collaborative Family Law Institute. Her law practice focuses on Collaborative Family Law and the traditional model and includes divorce; post judgment issues, timesharing of children, relocation, paternity, domestic partnership agreements and pre-nuptial and post nuptial agreements. Rosemarie is a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator, a trainer in Collaborative Law and an adjunct professor co-teaching the first Collaborative Law workshop at the University of Miami School of Law. Rosemarie received her Bachelor of Education from the University of Miami and her Juris Doctor from Nova University Center for the Study of Law. She is a member of the Florida Bar and the Bar’s Family Law Section and has served as a chair or member of the Mediation and Arbitration Committee, Rules and Forms Committee and the Legislation Committee. She is currently serving a term on the Florida Bar Family Law Rules Committee. She is a member of the Academy of Collaborative Professionals and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. She has lectured on Collaborative Law at the University of Miami School of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law and with the Florida Collaborative Trainers, LLC, where she is a principal, trains attorneys, mental health and financial professionals throughout Florida and New England. Her presentations have included Florida Bar CLE seminars, the Florida Chapter of AFCC, the Florida Psychological Association and various professional and civic organizations. Rosemarie has appeared on NBC 6, Miami, Florida and on WLRN, the local Miami NPR affiliate, discussing Collaborative Law. Her passion for the Collaborative process is infectious and has resulted in practitioners throughout Florida establishing 12 other practice groups. Rosemarie co-authored the chapter on Collaborative Law in the Florida Bar Continuing Legal Education handbook, Dissolution of Marriage. EDWARD S. SACHS, CPA/ABV CFF is a Certified Public Accountant, Accredited in Business Valuation and Certified in Family Forensics by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. After 25 years of representing spouses in litigated divorces, in 2016, Mr. Sachs left his position as Director of Litigation and Valuation Services for a large Coral Gables firm and opened his own accounting practice dedicated to the Collaborative Process and other alternatives to litigation in settling financial issues in divorce and business. Ed currently serves as President of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals and is a member of three practice groups in Miami-Dade, Broward and South Palm Beach counties. He has trained countless professionals throughout Florida in the Collaborative Process. He can be reached at his email - ed@edsachscpa.com. (305) 610-2395 or his website - www.edsachscpa.com. LANA M. STERN, PH.D is a Licensed Psychologist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Parent Coordinator and Florida Supreme Court Certified Mediator. She is an active and enthusiastic proponent of the Collaborative Process and has worked extensively on Collaborative family law cases as the MHP/Facilitator. Her article, “Wolf in Sheep's Clothing”, has been published in both the Spring 2017 issue of Collaborative Review (The Journal of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals) and in The Divorce Puzzle–Connecting the Pieces Collaboratively, (2017). Additionally, she has co-authored the chapter “Collaborative Law” in The Florida Bar CLE textbook, Dissolution of Marriage. She is a member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP) and served on the IACP Trainers Network and Development Committee and on the IACP Higher Education Taskforce. She is a member of the International and Florida Associations of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) and member of the Collaborative Family Law Institute (CFLI) of Miami for 13 years. She currently serves as Vice President and CFLI Board member and on the Education, Membership and Mentoring committees. She is a member of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals (FACP) and served on the Board of that organization and as Chair of the Training Committee. Dr. Stern has lectured statewide and nationally on the role of the neutral mental health facilitator in the Collaborative Process. In 2011, she co-founded “Florida Collaborative Trainers” an interdisciplinary training group, and has presented multiple 2-day basic and 1-day advanced trainings to attorneys, mental health professionals and financial professionals in Miami, Tampa, Gainesville, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Panama City, Jacksonville, New Hampshire and basic trainings at the University of Miami School of Law, the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville and the Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville. She co-taught the first Collaborative Law Workshop at the University of Miami School of Law in the Spring of 2012. Dr. Stern has been in private practice as a psychologist in the Coral Gables, Florida area for the past 30 years. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, and the Florida and Dade County Psychological Associations. She has expertise in couples and divorce counseling, and she taught the divorce education course “Positive Transitions” for divorcing parents as part of a private group. She also manages and treats depression, anxiety disorders, trauma, and child sexual abuse, counseling adults and adolescents individually or collectively. In 1993 she received the FPA “Outstanding Contribution to Psychology in the Public Interest” Award and DCPA “Certificate of Commendation” Award for her work in the area of Child Sexual Abuse. She has served as an educator, counselor, and trainer in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. She was an Adjunct Professor at Florida International University for 6 years, supervising master’s level, Mental Health and School Counselors during their Practicum and Internship. She also worked for Drake, Beam, Morin, an outplacement corporation, as a career consultant and corporate trainer..