I moved to Central New York in November of 2003 from California. I did not know at the time that I would become Central New York’s Father’s Rights attorney. It happened when I realized there was a need for men wanting to share parenting time with the mother of their child or for men to be the primary parent due to the incapacity of the mother of their child. Most of my clients want shared parenting time with their children because for them shared parenting means equal input into molding and shaping the future of their child versus being primarily influenced to who they are becoming by one parent.

I did not realize that a certain percentage of women believed that just because they gave birth to a child, they have superior parenting rights to that of the man and the man in their view was merely the sperm donor in a derogatory fashion versus the clinical definition. You hear women all the time stating “my body my choice” but there is yet to be men raising up and stating “my sperm my choice.” Perhaps in time the laws will change recognizing that the birthing vessel does not automatically make you a superior or better parent. Today, children are born through surrogates and in the future perhaps not utilizing the human body at all. The courts have a harder time determining which parent is the primary parent in this scenario, and it is especially hard in cases where there are two mommies or two daddies. The laws need to change faster to keep up with our societal changes as well as the views of those sitting on the bench, determining your future relationship with your child. Until that happens, you need an advocate that is there beside you understanding the challenges you face and one that can strategize based upon your unique facts and circumstances.

There is always one thing that can cause unnecessary grief for a client during litigation, and that is called “lawyer injected conflict.” I came up with this phrase to define other attorneys that choose not to be reasonable and fair, given the facts and circumstances of a particular case. Lawyer injected conflict never benefits the litigant and always benefits the attorneys as it continues the litigation process and drives up the cost of litigation. Most clients want what is fair and in their words “do not want to take the children away from their Mother.” This attitude by men translates to all the areas of family law practice, including a divorce.

There is also the misconception that Father’s Rights is an area of law. I can tell you no such area of law exists. It is the way I practice law, which is by focusing on protecting and advocating for the rights of men when it comes to divorce and family law issues.