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by Brian H. Burke (Author)
Mary and Joe Martin are getting a divorce. Mary makes the decision, Joe reluctantly understands, and they both anticipate a simple and amicable settlement. When Joe stops by their house and uses his key to enter without calling in advance, an argument starts. Joe throws a book across the room in frustration and storms out. Joe doesn't know that Mary throws a book at him, because the door closes before it hits the wall. Humiliated by his own emotional display and ignorant of Mary's behavior, Joe is overwhelmed by guilt. Mary decides she'd better hire a lawyer to navigate the divorce and wrongly assumes that one lawyer is as loathsome as another. She engages Mr. George Bleedem, J.D., which turns out to be her most important - and worst - decision. Bleedem manages her case using the insidious tactics common nationwide. Mary and Joe are vulnerable, volatile and frightened as the case proceeds. The reader is given tools to make sense of what is going on: it is impossible to be fooled about the perils of the legal arena after watching this case unfold with the author's blow-by-blow commentary revealing the underbelly of the divorce industry.
Author Biography
Brian Burke has been practicing law for 40 years. He started his career as a Deputy in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office in California, then to Santa Barbara and family law practice, certified by the California Board of Legal Specialization as a Family Law Specialist in 1982. Brian has developed a series of principles based on the concept of the "Reflective Practitioner" (D. A. Schon). In keeping with these values, he supports client self-determination in divorce cases and offers a unique protocol-based service for legal consultation which has proven valuable to several thousand divorcing clients over the past 25 years. His goal is to help clients make knowing and deliberate decisions. Brian has collected data for six-year longitudinal studies of two comparable divorcing populations, which confirms the view that divorce is essentially psychological and that the legal process is secondary, with vital implications for the practice of family law. (To Brian) What do you like best about your career? "I am fascinated by life stories and by the courage, strength, honor and dignity most people can call upon when in crisis. I hope to encourage behavior that manifests those kinds of qualities. I am engaged in a systematic inquiry into the real nature of divorce, describing from a lawyer's perspective what we need to know about human behavior in these circumstances so that we limit harm in the legal arena." At home, Brian enjoys reading, gardening and the daily jog with his wife and their Golden Retriever, Lollipop. A member of Therapy Dogs International, Lollipop visits patients at the local hospital and rehabilitation center and is often on hand at the law office
