The Encyclopedia of Matrimonial Practice, Ronald L. Brown, Editor; Prentice Hall Law & Business (Simon & Schuster, Professional Information Group), 1991

Since the divorce litigation monthly FairShare began publishing in the year 1980 it has branched out considerably, from being a newsletter of equitable distribution practice to covering support, custody, client relations, domestic torts, unmarried couples, and a host of divorce-related practice fields. In eleven years it has published hundreds of articles by renowned practitioners nationwide, mostly on particular detailed matrimonial law and practice issues. And although FairShare is well indexed, many a reader has wished that there were some way to group all of its valuable articles over the past decade-plus under their respective subject headings, so as to form something of an encyclopedia.

FairShare Editor Ron Brown has finally done that, gathering some 227 articles from past issues of the monthly into a very thick, tabbed ring binder. These articles, divided into subject-chapters, are supplemented by chapter introductions where necessary. As some of the articles -- including even the newest ones -- were necessarily out of date by reason of Supreme Court decisions, etc., Mr. Brown has seen to it that each one is revised to make certain that it is useful to readers in 1992. The compendium also seems to have been supplemented with about a dozen articles from other sources.

The chapters include matrimonial clients and practices, discovery, negotiating and settling cases, agreements, litigation techniques, alternative dispute resolution, property division, evaluation and distribution of businesses (by far the most extensive chapter, and divided into five sub-parts), valuing and distributing professional practices, pensions, support, insurance issues, tax, bankruptcy, custody/visitation, domestic torts, unmarried couples and biotechnology as it relates to divorce practice. Just a look at a few of the chapters shows what an extensive compilation this is and how useful most of the topics are.

The chapter on matrimonial clients and practices is divided into five areas: client selection, meeting clients, understanding clients, advising potential clients and "managing clients and cases." The very first part, relating to client selection, includes Jan Gabrielson's articles "Checklist: Danger Signs in Potential Clients" and "Can you Afford to Represent a Spouse with No Money?" The "Understanding Clients" subsection has two articles by psychologists. The last section includes, among other topics, Norman Sheresky's "Special Problems in Representing Celebrities" A few others are "Taking Over a Matrimonial Case" by Joel Brandes, and "Transfer to an Associate," by Dave Kelsey. The section on attorneys' fees includes Norman Frumkes on the fee relationship, a sampling of retainer agreements, an article on contested attorney's fee proceedings, and hints on how to make some matrimonial legal fees deductible.

The section on "The Business of Matrimonial Practice" includes Steve Harhai on computer tools for family law, and articles by Ed Poll on "the fine art of cash flow" in your practice, marketing your practice, and banking and loans for matrimonial attorneys.

The discovery chapter includes eleven articles on the fine points of discovery, including such ones as "The Disaffected Employee as a Discovery Tool" by Gary Skoloff, Monroe Inker on preparing the protective motion against discovery abuse, and videotape as a discovery tool. Other discovery topics include "Reading Between the Lines of Form 1040," sanctions in matrimonial discovery, and "The Use and Misuse of Matrimonial Discovery.

"The chapter on negotiating and settlement touches upon such matters as settlement without full disclosure, the four-way meeting, negotiating in the court house, whether women negotiate differently from men, and other fascinating topics. The agreements chapter includes many articles on both antenuptial agreements and separation agreements. Most of these are on the subject of a particular suggested clause, and why to use it.

The chapter on the valuation and distribution of the business goes into such areas as the use of Revenue Ruling 59-60 to value the closely held corporation, "applying common sense to capitalization of earnings", the key man concept in business valuations, finding comparable companies for valuation comparisons , "the misuse of the discounted future returns valuation," investigative accounting for the divorce lawyer, methods of proving unreported income, and use of a personal net worth statement. There are quite a few articles on the use of experts in valuation of closely held businesses, articles on specific types of small businesses and family businesses with their own particular problems, and a number of individual business valuation case studies.

In the custody and visitation area there is a full discussion of modern custody options, the articles including such titles as "Checklist: Ways to Help Make Shared Custody Work," by Linda Elrod, and Jeff Atkinson on "Interference with a Child's Relationship with a Non Custodial Parent." Also fully covered is custody and visitation litigation, including several articles on the use of experts, a section on child sex abuse issues, and a special article on international law in custody matters.

The authors include most of the best known names in divorce law practice today. FairShare was originally a heavily New York publication and its authors tended to be predominantly Manhattanites. That has changed markedly, and the many participating authors today are drawn from all across the country. Many of them are former Chairmen of the ABA Family Law Section, the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and similar groups. They include, to name only a few not named above, Lynn Gold Bikin, Ira Lurvey, Beverly Groner, Sam Schoonmaker, Willard DaSilva, John Nichols, James Friedman, Marvin Snyder, and Philip Schwartz. Ring binder notwithstanding, nothing indicates that supplementation is planned.