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225 South Civic Drive, Suite 1-3
Palm Springs,
California
92262
Phone: 760-320-7915
Fax: 760-320-0725
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We offer a Committed and Mindful Approach for Resolving Marital and Non-Martial Partner Disputes
AFFORDABLE FEES & FREE INITIAL CONSULTS
Serving Indio, La Quinta, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, and Palm Springs
Mindful Divorce: A Middle Way
Our philosophy is simple: How best to get you out of this mess?
We have found through hard experience that the American model for resolving relationship disputes is defective at its core. The adversarial legal system is founded upon conflict, and ignores the consequences of making a contest over every issue to individuals and families. Time and again otherwise sane, decent people become entirely obsessed with arguing every point, or winning at any cost. In that process they lose their ethics, they lose their essential goodness, and they cause themselves, their spouse, their children, and others economic and emotional catastrophe. The high conflict divorce is expensive and inefficient and destructive beyond reasonableness; it promises that the next generation will repeat the experience, and that childen of divorce themselves will reject the warring parents.
Some lawyers either subscribe to the viciousness that the trance of the divorce contest provokes, encourage it through misconceived aggression, or simply are at a loss to consider and integrate another approach. It is not entirely their fault: The role that lawyers are trained to assume as warriors has been the consensus system of thinking. If you want one of those lawyers, you can find them by typing the word "aggressive" and "divorce lawyer" into any search engine. But beware. "Aggression" is defined as: "ready or likely to attack or confront; characterized by or resulting from aggression: 'he's uncooperative and aggressive'/aggressive behavior -- pursuing one's aims and interests forcefully, sometimes unduly so.... from Latin aggress - 'attacked'."
Alternatively, increasingly there are lawyers who have come to realize that that style of practice – consistent as it might be with the standards of current legal ethics – misses the point. These are the divorce attorneys who have remembered why they became family law professionals in the first place -- something in them resonated and empathized with the suffering, confusion, and plight of others. Or, as Steven Keeva puts it, "[t]o the extent that you enter it as a calling, the practice of law is about hunger -- the hunger for resolution; for healing the lives of individuals,... and communities; for enabling society to function harmoniously and productively; and ultimately, for justice."
I am one such lawyer. It took me years on the battlefield, and the slow but dedicated devotion to accumulating wisdom to understand there is and always was a middle way.
At Arnold & Beerman we are dedicated to mindfully guiding you through divorce and other family law proceedings with a minimum of conflict. It is true that contests are at times unavoidable. But it has been our experience that, even then, sensitivity towards the traumatic experience of divorce is a powerful force in restoring sanity and dignity to the process for both sides. It is our hope we can assist you in a manner that allows you and your former partner to dance one day at your children's wedding. There is a subtle but eminently more satisfactory alternative to the high conflict divorce, and we want to help you find it.
Make no mistake: We are experienced family law litigators, well known to the local Bar and Bench. When contest is unavoidable, we prepare and present our cases with zeal and conviction. It is, after all, our goal to get you out of this mess intact. We have the experience, we know the law, and we know what resources to employ to obtain the outcome that is just.
Our Practice
- Divorce, Dissolution of Marriage
- Annulment (Fraud, Incapacity, Bigamy)
- Legal Separation (Cooling Off Periods,Religious, Medical, Substance Abuse, and Debt Related Reasons)
- Domestic Partnership (Straight and Gay Relationships)
- Cases Involving Military Personnel and Service Men and Women
- Community Property and Separate Property Division and Awards (including Moore-Marsden Issues, Epstein Credits, and Watts Credits and Charges)
- Assigning Debt, Dealing with Foreclosures, and Bankruptcy
- Breach of Fiduciary Duties of Disclosure and Equal Management
- Business and Real Estate Valuations and Division Including 730 Evals
- Protecting and Dividing Pensions -- 401ks, IRAs, PERS, STRS, 437cs and QDROs (Qualified Domestic Relations Orders)
- Short terms and Permanent Spousal Support and "New Mate" Income Issues
- Child Support and Enforcement Actions
- Prenuptial Agreements, Premarital Agreements, and Non-Marital Cohabitation Agreements
- Common Law Marriage and Marvin Actions
- Support of Dependent Adults
- Paternity
- Settlement by Marital Termination Agreement, Stipulated Judgments
- Mediation, ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution), Defaults
- Collaborative Law, Collaborative Divorce
- Custody Disputes and Best Interests of Minor Children
- Parent Move-Aways and Rights of Non-Mover
- Domestic Violence
- Psychological Evaluations
- Adoptions, Foster Parenting, and Juvenile Court Matters
- Non Parent Custody and Visitation, Including Grandparents and Siblings
- Guardianships and Conservatorships
- Marital Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts and Probates
- Post-Dissolution Estate and Probate
- Elder Abuse
- End of Life Dignity Issues (Powers of Attorney, DNR's, and DNF's)
THURMAN W. ARNOLD, III [California State Bar No.: 107101]
- State Bar of California (1982)
- Central District Court of the United States (1983)
- Family Law Section, State Bar of California
- Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC)
- International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP)
- International Alliance of Holistic Lawyers (IAHL)
- Member, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
- Member, Cutting Edge Law
- Member, Mediate.com
- Riverside County Bar Association
- Desert Bar Association, Family Law Committee
- Desert Bar Association Arbitration Panel/Attorney Client Fee Disputes
- San Bernardino Bar Association
- Orange County Bar Association
- Past Member of the Warren Slaughter, American Inns of Court
- Martindate Hubbell Ranking
- Certificate of Appreciation for Services as Judge Pro Tempore of the Superior Court, Riverside County, 2002 to the present
- FCC License Amateur Radio K16WHL
T.W. Arnold is native to Palm Springs. His father opened one of the earliest law offices here in 1953.
Protecting rights and resolving disputes is an Arnold tradition spanning 170 years. T.W. Arnold is a fifth generation attorney. His grandfather Thurman Arnold taught at the Yale Law School together with Justice William O. Douglas and others from 1930 to 1938, and authored a number of books on legal realism and economics some of which remain in print. In 1938 President Roosevelt appointed him to be the United States Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division for the Department of Justice. In 1943, Arnold accepted a post as a Justice for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. But he did not relish being a Judge, always insisting he'd “rather be talking to a bunch of damn fools then listening to a bunch of damn fools".
In 1946 he formed the the Washington D.C. Law Firm of Arnold, Porter & Fortas, which became Arnold & Porter when Abe Fortas was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1965. In the 1950's Arnold, Porter and Fortas was one of the few Washington law firms that stood against Senator Joseph McCarthy, representing many middle and lower income government officials who lost their jobs when McCarthy prosecuted them as being allegd communists, all pro bono. Thurman Arnold died in 1969.
T.W. Arnold attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon in 1974, receiving a Commendation of Excellence for his academic performance. In 1976 he transferred to the University of California at Santa Barbara, graduating with Honors in 1979. He next attended the Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. He was an editorial staff member of it prestigious Environmental Law Journal. He received his Juris Doctorate in June, 1982.
In November, 1982, he was admitted to the California Bar, and joined his father in the locally based Palm Springs practice. Since then Arnold's interests have focused on individual lives in a multitude of family law matters, and upon criminal defense and civil litigation. Arnold has tried numerous cases to jury verdict with excellent results. In almost 30 years hehas represented many hundreds of family law litigants, always preferring to impact one person at a time.
The Arnold tradition is one of commitment and ethics. Arnold is a student of Zen Buddhism, and of Mindfulness practices, which provide remarkable tools for managing the litigation lives of clients and defusing high conflict divorces. He has attended retreats with Jack Kornfield and Eckhart Tolle, and others, and devotes devotes time each year to remain connected with his spiritual values. He aims today to contribute his substantial energies to helping bring about a positive shift in the way society views lawyers, how lawyers view their own roles, and in how family law proceedings are conducted. He intends to provoke discussion about these issues in the writings and blogs which come to be attached to this site.
Memberships, Licenses, Associations and Public Service
JENNIFER J. BEERMAN [California State Bar No.: 207877]
Jennifer grew up as an Air Force "brat." As is common, her parents moved she and her brother to a new city, state, or country every few years. She has lived in Minnesota, North Dakota, Washington State, and California. She lived in Aviano, Italy for over 3 years as a child. Her experiences in Italy were illuminating, and scary. These years spent in Italy were during a fit of terrorism against Americans, Jews, and others in Europe. During this time the Vatican was bombed, a ferry boat to Greece was sunk, and the Achille Lauro was hijacked in 1985.
She attended Law School in San Diego in 1997. She is the first member of her family to receive a Bachelor's Degree and a post Doctorate Degree. She worked through school and put herself through college and Law School.
During her first two years at law school Jennifer was so shy that she could not bring herself to try out for the mock trial team. Becoming a lawyer began to seem like a bad idea. But one day a friend got her goat by bet JJB that she could not win an argument in moot court, so Jennifer took up the challenge. Of course Jennifer won. This earned her a place on the Moot Court team, which wound up af the Finals in Washington D.C. Jennifer placed 4th overall, and was offered a job on the spot by one of the Judges, who worked for the Department of Defense. Washington D.C. appealed to Jennifer. But the thought of joining attending Boot Camp, didn't.
Instead, she accepted a position with Riverside County as a Deputy District Attorney . Jennifer quickly earned the title Misdemeanor Trial Deputy of the Year. She has had some 40 jury trials, many involving serious felonies. Although there are no jury trials in California family cases, these skills remain essential for effective advocacy. While serving as a district attorney, in 2004 Jennifer’s husband, a Medic in the Reserves, was deployed to Iraq/Kuwait for 13 months. He made it back in time for their son's second birthday. But the experience was horrific at times.
Jennifer is a Foster Parent who together with her husband adopted three children who were born biracial and addicted to drugs. Protecting children is her greatest passion.
Please email us or visit our website for additional information.
