What is it like to have a lawyer as a client? Sylvia Golden, BVR’s legal editor, spoke with both an attorney and a valuation expert about this, and particularly about representing a lawyer who is going through divorce. In an interview in Family Lawyer Magazine, Golden spoke with prominent attorney Sanford K. Ain (Ain & Bank) and business valuator Stuart Rosenberg (Aronson LLC’s Forensic & Valuation Services Group) about divorce and valuation-related issues.

“Representing lawyers is challenging at times, but also easy in many respects,” says Ain. “Lawyers tend to be bright and inquisitive; if you educate them about divorce law, they can be very helpful in bringing their case to a successful conclusion. Education is the principle ingredient in representing lawyers: the more you educate them, the better client you have.”

Grave error: Ain also talked about when a valuator should be brought into a case. “Many lawyers do not hire experts until they’re well into the case: sometimes, so shortly before the trial that discovery has ended. That’s a grave error,” he says. “I often engage an expert at the initial meeting with the client. Once the client and I have decided to work together, I will frequently call an expert during the course of that meeting and engage them. That’s part of the education process in representing lawyers, but it’s important in representing any client.”

Says Rosenberg: “As far as controlling an attorney-client, I leave that completely up to their attorney—other than trying to convince a Type A personality attorney that their situation isn’t unique, that the judges have seen it before, we have seen it before, and the lawyers involved have seen the issues before. It might be overwhelming or unique to them because they’re emotionally involved, but it’s not unique to the experts, lawyers, and judges involved in the case.”