Nanci Smith Email & Phone Number

Growing up on the playgrounds of Detroit, I advocated against child abuse in 4th grade when I discovered my friend’s mother would extinguish her cigarettes on her daughter’s fingers. By 6th grade, I made an amazing Minestrone for a soup kitchen, and started to feel the weight of racial and economic injustice. I was called into law. I developed a thick skin, a quick wit, and a disciplined approach to problem solving by discerning people’s interests and motives. I studied Philosophy because the Big Questions matter, and attended law school to fight bullies and injustice. As a law student, I represented a domestic violence victim through the intimidating world of family court to divorce her batterer. Divorce was foreign to me, as my parents had always been together. I then became a trial attorney under the apprenticeship of a former attorney general, who taught me the art, skill, and ethics of effective lawyering. A dream called me back to represent the underserved, and I worked at Legal Aid until opening my firm in 2005.After litigating many custody cases, it gnawed at me that I was contributing to a lifetime of bitterness and resentment for my clients. They were losing so much (time with their children, money, lifestyle, identity) through an aggressive, public and adversarial forum full of shame and blame. I then discovered Collaborative Law (CL). Clients explore their options, including CL, which is an interdisciplinary and non-adversarial process that empowers clients to make healthy decisions about their post-divorce life. Clients put their children’s needs ahead of their negative feelings toward one another and choose to act with integrity and decency, despite their pain. Lawyers choose to use collaborative negotiation skills to create a supportive environment to resolve their dispute. It’s private, educational, inspirational, and it works. This is the conflict resolution model that I most value. It recognizes our common humanity. Let's connect!

Listed skills include Civil Litigation, Collaborative Law, Commercial Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and 13 others.

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  Collaborative Family Law Attorney | Advocate For #Peacefuldivorce | Author

  Nanci A. Smith, Esq. Pllc

  Jun 2005 - Present - Central Vermont

  My boutique law firm is truly client-centered and dedicated to respectfully resolving complex family law issues. We are firmly grounded in educating our clients about various ways to resolve their family law challenges via mediation or Collaborative Law. We help clients achieve their goals by providing thoughtful, ethical and efficient counsel.My belief in the benefits of Collaborative Law – ultimately, a peaceful divorce – have made me an active advocate in working with Vermont’s emerging collaborative practice community. Using this model, clients receive access to a network of financial professionals, mental health workers, and lawyers. This team approach is used to ascertain and address emotional and financial needs up front, while mitigating some of the anxiety and shame that many people experience when getting divorced. When it comes to divorce, there is “no one size fits all” approach. I assess each client’s circumstances with a broad lens of options to fit their needs, personalities and core values. This might mean a straight line to court in cases involving abuse. Mediation for clients in relatively equal bargaining positions. Or, a collaborative divorce for couples who choose to part more amicably, and where they both value a more positive and productive process that gives them more control, and their children the best opportunity for emerging whole and confident despite the divorce.While I lead with my heart, I have nearly 3 decades of front-line litigation experience and more than 15 years of collaborative negotiation practice and mediation experience. So, I tend to approach my work as a family lawyer with this unique combination of tools. In addition to my hands-on experience, I’ve also authored several publications and am a frequent guest lecturer on family law, divorce, ethics and collaborative divorce practice.