Practice Areas

Divorce and Family Law

The Family Law Group at McLane Middleton handles all aspects of family law, including the preparation and execution of prenuptial agreements, legal separations, divorce and annulments. McLane Middleton's family law lawyers work with you to guide you through the process and ensure that your best interests are protected. Our lawyers work with many sophisticated matters and have the depth, experience and expertise to handle the most substantial and challenging divorce disputes. At the same time, our professionals recognize that there are many emotional ramifications in these cases and take the utmost care in striking the right balance for each particular situation.

Divorce & Parenting

The Family Law Practice Group attorneys at McLane Middleton are skilled at handling the legal and emotional challenges of divorce proceedings. Divorces often involve complex issues related to the valuation and transfer of property, such as interests in real estate, pensions, 401(k) accounts, IRAs, retirement and other accounts as well as subchapter S corporations, closely held businesses, partnerships, stock options and patents. McLane Middleton has the expertise to handle all related tax issues, the preparation of QDROs to transfer interests in 401(k) accounts and other retirement plans, and the transfer of interests in real estate, businesses and corporations. We draw upon assistance from the most qualified professionals to handle all aspects of your case.

For couples with minor children divorces often involve difficult and emotional issues regarding parenting rights and responsibilities. Our attorneys and paralegals offer sound advice and experience in guiding you in making decisions in these matters and in asserting and protecting your rights.

Property and Asset Distribution

The Family Law attorneys at McLane Middleton are experienced in addressing all manner of assets and their division and distribution including cases that involve substantial assets and may include: closely held business entities or partnership interests; stock options; trusts; real estate; collectible or unusual assets; and various forms of investment and retirement assets, including pensions and related tax issues. McLane Middleton has the depth of resources to handle complex asset valuation and division of any type, whether through collaborative law, mediation, negotiation or litigation.

Parental Rights

McLane Middleton Family Law attorneys are well-versed in handling parental rights issues, including allocation of decision-making responsibilities, development of a parenting schedule, relocation disputes and modification of parenting plans. McLane Middleton’s Family Law Group includes trained marital mediators and collaborative practitioners who can assist parents in working out agreements on parenting issues. In the absence of agreement, our group’s experienced litigators vigorously protect our client’s parental rights in court.

Support Issues

Issues of child support and alimony on both a temporary (payable while the divorce is pending) and permanent basis (ordered as part of the final divorce decree) are important issues to be addressed in the divorce proceedings.

Prenuptial

Our Family Law attorneys often help clients draft prenuptial agreements prior to their marriages. McLane Middleton Family Law attorneys can provide important guidance to ensure timely and efficient preparation of such an agreement during what is a very happy time for a couple. Prenuptial agreements can be very creative, flexible and can address a wide variety of issues. They are increasingly common in today’s society. Sometimes a prenuptial agreement is disputed in divorce. Our attorneys are also experienced in litigating the enforceability of terms and clauses in these agreements.

Legal Separations

The knowledgeable domestic relations attorneys at McLane Middleton have experience in handling all aspects of marriage dissolution, including legal separation. We review all options with our clients and counsel them on the right course that best fits their goals and objectives.

Collaborative Law

McLane Middleton’s Family Law Practice Group includes lawyers who are trained Collaborative Law Practitioners and Marital Mediators. In a collaborative divorce, the parties and their lawyers pledge to reach an agreement without court involvement either through negotiations between the parties and counsel alone, or with the help of a mediator. This is often hard to accomplish without tried and tested strategies, and why specialized training is needed for collaborative law practitioners and marital mediators. Both methods offer strategies for resolving disputes in a way that emphasizes cooperation between the parties.

Mediation

Our attorneys are highly skilled in the practice of mediation and dispute resolution. Our goal in such cases is to help parties through complicated divorces quickly, efficiently and as cooperatively as possible. Mediation provides an opportunity for parties to design the outcome of their divorce. It proceeds on a schedule acceptable to the parties. For parties with full knowledge of their income and assets, that may be a matter of weeks; for others it is often longer. Under any circumstances, mediation will be a more expedient, amicable and cost-efficient way to resolve a divorce than litigation.

Parties may mediate a case before or after filing for divorce. Under court rules in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, parties in most divorce cases will be expected to mediate their differences, in an effort to preserve co-parenting relationships and minimize acrimonious litigation. Angry litigation between parents negatively affects the children, often tainting interactions for years after a divorce. By diverting cases to mediation before litigation, the court has increased the number of family law disputes settled by agreement. Our knowledgeable and experienced family law attorneys successfully guide clients through the mediation process on a regular basis. If efforts to settle fail, our team of skilled litigators capably guide clients through the contested divorce process. Whether the case is mediated or goes to trial, we handle every phase of the case from start to finish.

Family Law Litigation

Our experienced team of litigators represents clients in all courts throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts. They have been repeatedly recognized for their work by various peer recognition organizations and served as elected officers of the New Hampshire Bar Association and elected leaders of numerous family law organizations and practice groups. The members of McLane’s Family Law Group are frequent members on panels for continuing legal education programs.

Our family law litigation team focuses on complicated marital matters. Its clients are able to efficiently draw on the advice and expertise of the Firm’s many other practice groups for assistance with corporate, business valuation, real estate, trust, pension, tax, employment and criminal issues. We understand the deep financial and emotional impact that these cases have on the individuals involved, both before and after resolution of the case. If a family law issue is unable to be resolved and must be litigated, our team of professionals will work together to provide excellent client service and accessibility to minimize the upset and distraction imposed by the litigation upon our client. We will provide excellent yet efficient service, prompt responses to inquiries, practical advice and ensure that each client understands the case status, developments and available options as the case moves forward.