About the Author

J. Richard Kulerski is a veteran divorce lawyer with forty-plus years of courtroom experience. He practices in Oak Brook, Illinois (eighteen miles west of downtown Chicago) and is a staunch advocate of the non-court approach to divorce.

He is a Harvard Law-trained mediator and settlement negotiator, published author, speaker, and divorce negotiation coach.

Education and Training

Juris Doctor, DePaul University Law School, Chicago, IL, 1963

Undergraduate at Benedictine College (Kansas) and Loyola University (Chicago)

Admission to Illinois Bar, 1963

Admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 1963

Duly admitted and qualified as an attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., August 26, 1971

Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Program of Instruction for Lawyers – Advanced Mediation Training (Robert Mnookin, Gary Friedman, Jack Himmelstein, instructors), 2000 (Harvard Law ranked number one in dispute resolution by US News and World, 2002)

Illinois State Bar Association Fred Lane Trial Technique Institute, 1996-1997

Harvard Law School Program of Instruction for Lawyers – Program on Negotiation (Roger Fisher, instructor), 1999

George Williams College of Aurora University School of Social Work, Williams Bay, WI – Conflict Resolution and Divorce Mediation Institute (additional training in divorce mediation and screening for impairments), 1999

Pepperdine University School of Law, Malibu, California – Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Advanced Family Mediation Skills, 2000 (Pepperdine Law ranked number one in dispute resolution by US News & World Report, 2003)

Collaborative Law Training, Collaborative Law Institute, Bloomington, Minnesota (Stuart Webb, instructor), 2002

Pepperdine University School of Law – Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Collaborative Law Training, 2002

Thirty-hour mediation externship in Kane County, Illinois, divorce court (in addition to ten hours of extern group roundtable discussion), sponsored through the George Williams College of Aurora University School of Social Work – Conflict Resolution and Divorce Mediation Institute, 1999–2000

Harvard Law School, Program of Instruction for Lawyers – Advanced Negotiation Training (Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, instructors), 2001

DuPage County Bar Association Matrimonial Trial Advocacy Workshop, 2000

JDS Mediation Training Institute, Chicago, Illinois, 1998

Memberships and Distinctions (Past and Present)

• Advanced Practitioner Member – Family Section – Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR)
• Fellow – Collaborative Law Institute of Illinois
• Member – International Academy of Collaborative Professionals
• Member – The Mediation Council of Illinois – Board of Directors Member (2000-2001)
• Published author – Bar Association articles on collaborative divorce law and mediation
• Section Member – Family Law Section of the Illinois State Bar Association
• Section Member – Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Illinois State Bar Association
• Sustaining Member – DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association
• Member – Family Law and Practice Committee, DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association
• Panel Member – DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service
• Attorney Member – American Responsible Divorce Network
• Member – Chicago Bar Association Matrimonial Law Committee
• Member – American Bar Association Section of Family Law
• Member – American Bar Association Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Member – Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, DuPage County (Illinois) Bar Association
• Member – Association of Attorney-Mediators
• Member – Family Law Committee, Southwest Bar Association of Cook County, Illinois
• Member – Domestic Relations Panel of the Lawyer Referral Service of the Chicago Bar Association
• Member – Family Law Committee, Will County (Illinois) Bar Association
• Member – National Registry of Who’s Who registered at The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• Court Appointee – Attorney for the Child or Guardian Ad Litem
• Court Certified Mediator – and Appointee, DuPage County, Illinois
• Member – Family Law Attorney National Referral List, Institute for Certified Divorce Planners (ICDP)
• Peer-Recommended Professional – Divorce Magazine
• Founding Associate – Federal Mediation and Litigation Associates (FMALA), Washington, D.C.