Gary James Friedman

In his defense I suppose I should say that Gary does not claim to be up to date on the laws of California, in fact he readily admits that he is not the man to ask if you are seeking to arrive at a settlement based on accepted standards in our state. Gary might be more successful if he would listen b...efore starting tell you his vision of what your post marital landscape will look like. In my case, at our first meeting, before getting to know the reality of our financial situation, he asked my soon-to-be-ex if she would rather "rent or own" a place to live in Mill Valley. Mind you, she had brought no assets to our relatively short-lived marriage but now was focused on the expectation that a divorce would make her a homeowner in one of the priciest communities in the United States. After asking how much she would need to live in the utopia he proposed, Friedman ran a tortured series of ever-more impossible calculations trying to make our incomes add up to the lofty figure that the vision would cost. After the mediation crashed and burned and my once-wife threatened to throw herself off the Golden Gate bridge, she sought out the most aggressive and dishonorable lawyer she could find still hoping to make the vision Gary Friedman planted in her a head a reality. When all the ensuing expense, bitterness and vitriol played itself out, our mundane financial reality guided the terms of the final settlement. If mediation is meant to provide an amicable and fiscally responsible alternative to litigation, Gary Friedman's reckless and irresponsible approach makes a peaceful outcome nearly impossible. In my case turned out to be a counterproductive nightmare.