Benton Hutul Page

When Benton Page decided to practice matrimonial and family law, he realized the differences between this challenging field and other kinds of litigation and transaction: "It is never boring," he says. "Every case requires me to learn more about some aspect of the law, as well as about people and other fields that otherwise I would know nothing about." And during divorces, he adds, "People need a lot of hand-holdingmore than in situations related to other legal matters. I have clients who call every single day, and I'm glad to talk with them. But I insist on keeping one foot in front of the other and resolving each of their matters as quickly as possible."

Even though the field of divorce law is different from other specialties in certain respects, he notes that it continues to evolve. "Divorce has always been an emotional ordeal. It is moving into a different environment, however, just like the rest of civil practice, which is less emotional, with people actually following the rules."

"Philosophically, family law has been at the forefront of the movement towards collaboration, mediation and cooperative settlements," Page observes. But he admits that this area is still very people-sensitive; and it's the last frontier when it comes to using modern courtroom technology. Even so, family law is catching up, and more efficient processes save time and help clients, "who are always in a hurry to get to the end of the process."

In Page's view, there are two distinct types of clients he sees: those who are deeply worried about their and their childrens futures and those who "just want to get divorced." In both categories, however, clients are surprised by how long the process takes. "A contested divorce often lasts longer than a year," he explains, "because the information-gathering process alone takes a long time."