Best Lawyers in Massachusetts, United States for Collaborative Law: Family Law
Massachusetts is a rich state with a wide range of legal issues spanning industries, personal matters and public interests. From complex corporate litigation in Boston to family law cases in Worcester, choosing the right attorney in Massachusetts is essential.
This directory exists to help you make that choice with confidence. Whether you're navigating a business dispute or seeking guidance on estate planning, this is your starting point to connect with peer-recognized professionals across the state.
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This page is a curated directory of attorneys in Massachusetts who have earned recognition through Best Lawyers' rigorous peer-review process. You can browse by legal specialty, location or an individual lawyer’s name. Every profile includes verified, current credentials to help you compare qualifications and make informed contact decisions.
You’ll find professionals who represent a wide range of practices and regions, all committed to delivering results aligned with ethical and professional standards. Whether you’re a business executive, in-house counsel or an individual facing a personal legal challenge, this tool helps you find a lawyer in Massachusetts with the right experience and focus.
Legal Services Across Every Corner of the Commonwealth
The needs of Massachusetts residents are varied. This directory helps you refine your search geographically and by practice area.
- Boston remains a national legal hub, with top-tier attorneys in corporate law, white-collar defense, healthcare regulation and intellectual property.
- Cambridge caters to academic institutions, biotech firms and tech startups, offering services in education law, patent filings and startup counsel.
- Worcester and Springfield provide broad representation in family law, personal injury and workers' compensation—all essential for clients seeking local support.
- Lowell and Lawrence are home to attorneys focused on immigration law and employment matters, including wage disputes, visa services and workplace discrimination claims.
Wherever your legal issue arises, you’ll find attorneys across Massachusetts who understand the unique legal landscape of their region. Whether you're looking to resolve a dispute, defend your rights or plan for the future, you’ll find guidance here.
Why Trust This Directory to Find Your Legal Advocate
Each attorney in Massachusetts listed here has earned their place through Best Lawyers’ time-tested selection process. Every year, attorneys are nominated and reviewed by their peers, with a focus on professional excellence, legal ethics and meaningful client outcomes.
Inclusion is not purchased. While attorneys can manage their profile information, only those selected for the most recent edition are featured. This gives clients confidence that they’re viewing a current and credible list of attorneys in Massachusetts.
The peer-review methodology reflects what fellow professionals value most—trust, competence and consistency. It’s a high bar and every lawyer listed has met it.
Start Your Search Today
This is where your legal search begins—with a trusted, structured list of attorneys in Massachusetts who have been recognized by their peers for professional excellence. Use the filters to narrow down by location, practice area or name. Whether you're looking for help with a business transaction or need a skilled advocate for a personal legal issue, this directory helps you find a lawyer in Massachusetts who fits your specific needs.
Practice Area Overview
In traditional divorce litigation, the parties look to the court system and judges to resolve their dispute viewing the other as the adversary. The process can result in considerable emotional and financial cost to the family. Collaborative Law is a non-adversarial process that views a family in divorce as a family in crisis that has a series of problems to be solved, rather than a series of battles to be fought. The end goal is to meet the legitimate needs of everyone involved in a restructured family.
The process starts with both Husband and Wife retaining unaffiliated collaboratively trained attorneys who commit, in writing, not to go to court but instead to work together to help the couple reach agreements beneficial to all. If an agreement cannot be reached and one or both parties choose to proceed to court, the attorneys and experts are disqualified from proceeding further on an adversarial basis. With the focus on problem solving instead of adversarial representation, there is a strong likelihood conflict will be reduced, allowing the couple to resolve and reach agreements.
The parties meet privately with their respective lawyers and possibly additional experts, called “Team Members” who may include a child specialist, a neutral financial professional, and divorce coaches, all of whom perform a valuable service helping to minimize conflict and cost by guiding the parties towards an amicable resolution.
Collaborative law is similar to but differs from mediation in some significant respects. In mediation, a neutral third party (the mediator) facilitates the parties’ negotiation to help reach a settlement but cannot give legal advice, advocate for either side, or draft the final legal papers necessary. In Collaborative Law, both parties have independent lawyers present during negotiation to provide legal advice in an educational context, thereby empowering the clients to make informed decisions about their lives and their children’s lives. When agreement is reached, the collaborative lawyers will prepare all the papers necessary and will accompany the parties to court to finalize their case.
Donald C. Schiller, Senior Partner
Schiller DuCanto & Fleck
David A. Hoffman is a mediator, arbitrator, attorney, and founding member of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC. David is listed in the book “The Best Lawyers in America” in five categories (Mediation, Arbitration, Collaborative Law – Civil, Collaborative Law - Family, and Family Law Mediation). He was named Boston's "Lawyer of the Year" in Collaborative Law in 2014, in Mediation for 2016, in Arbitration in 2018, and again in Mediation for 2020. He has been named a Massachusetts ...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.