George B. Richardson, JD, CFLS*

About George

George Richardson, JD, CFLS* has been practicing family law exclusively since 1989 and opened his own office in 1994. For the last several years, he has confined his practice to the non-adversarial resolution of family disputes through collaborative, mediative, and cooperative approaches to respectfully resolving the various parenting and financial concerns surrounding divorce and other ‘uncoupling’. He is an internationally recognized expert on Collaborative Practice and is rated as ‘Superb’ at Avvo, ‘Preeminent’ by Martindale-Hubbel, and a ‘Super Lawyer’ since 2005 and is *Certified as a Specialist in Family Law by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.

Raised back East, George came to Stanford Law School after graduating with honors from Princeton and has lived and worked in northern Santa Clara County for over 40 years. He has extensive litigation experience, having been a public defender and civil litigator since law school. He has also been a partner in a New York based law firm, practicing business and securities law. This varied background has given him the breadth to be comfortable in the family law area with its diverse questions.

As a divorcé himself, George’s knowledge of the pain and anxiety of family separation brought him to the conclusion that divorce should and can be done with mutual respect and civility, even in the most contentious situations. As a result, he became a pioneer in and internationally respected leader of Collaborative Divorce, a family/child-centered approach to resolving family disputes. Since 1994, he has handled scores of Collaborative divorces.

Since 1999, he, together with others, has trained Collaborative practitioners in the United States, Canada, and Australia with fundamental and advanced courses in Collaborative Divorce. He is a founding member of Collaborative Practice California’s Board of Directors, serving for nearly 10 years, a founding member of CP Cal’s Advisory Board, and a charter member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. As IACP’s first co-chair of its Standards Committee, he was a principal drafter of IACP’s original standards with respect to Collaborative ethics, practitioners, trainers, and trainings. He is also founder and former co-chair of the IACP’s Advisory Council on Collaborative Training. George is a founder and former President of Collaborative Practice Silicon Valley, one of the oldest collaborative law organizations in North America. He is among the first recipients of the Eureka Award, given by CP Cal to recognize those who “have made significant contributions and demonstrated an abiding dedication to establishing and sustaining Collaborative Practice in California”. George received his BA from Princeton University in 1969 and his JD from Stanford Law School in 1972. He limits his practice to non-adversarial family law dispute resolution and is certified as a specialist in family law by the California State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.