A Heartwarming Letter from One of My Previous Clients
It is not every day that I receive a letter from a client expressing their gratitude for the service that my staff and I provide to families on a daily basis. This letter is extra special because it truly summarizes what I stand for and what I think all family professionals should stand for. Unfortunately, it is in their most vulnerable time that a new client walks into my office. It is my goal to make everyone we meet with feel like a person who matters, not just a client looking for legal help.
Every day I strive to be the gentleman who successfully helps families move forward to resolve their differences in a peaceful, private and mature way.
Dear Bob,
I cannot believe this day is finally here. I remember the day! first met you ten months ago back in March. What a journey this has been, I have so much to thank you for. I am not sure where to begin.
I have always been keenly aware of and fiercely focused on what is important to me. This is true in all realms of my life, especially in my marriage. In selecting the right lawyer to help me navigate the turbulent waters of my divorce, I had one attribute in mind. It wasn’t intelligence, experience, persuasiveness, or reputation. Many lawyers I researched were intelligent, experienced, and graduates of top law schools. None, however, described himself online the way you did. You possess the one attribute I was looking for. You believe in the sanctity of the family unit.
So much so, that you left the courtroom to pursue a gentler kind of law – one that strives to protect this essential nucleus. In this aspect we are so much alike. You see, Bob, was looking for a gentleman.
Only a gentleman, I thought, would be able to understand the devastation I felt as my marriage ended after I tried so hard to protect both the sanctity of the sacrament and my family. Only a gentleman would appreciate and respect my values, my struggles, my traumas, my fears, and my hopes. I knew at the onset of this process that the journey ahead was going to be emotionally treacherous for me. I knew before we even started working together that there would be times in this process when my emotions and traumas would hijack my being, and I would need much more than legal advice from my lawyer.
Selecting the right lawyer was especially difficult because I was at a very low point of my life, being pressed to get divorced when I was not ready. I was filled with self-doubt, yet I needed to trust my gut – my inner voice, which unequivocally told me you were in fact the experienced, intelligent, knowledgeable, and persuasive gentleman who would rise to the challenge of helping me through the divorce process.
Boy am I glad I chose you. Thank you for your legal advice but thank you even more for your compassion, your respectful demeanor in the face of my triggers, which brought forth intense emotions. I know it was not easy. Thank you for holding my feelings when I was clearly unable to do so. Thank you for gently stepping into my inner world and helping me stay afloat throughout this painful and difficult process. Thank you for helping me hold on to my truth with dignity and grace. This was far more important to me than getting more alimony.
You are true gentleman in every sense of the word and a great lawyer.
Bob Merlin is a Florida Bar Board Certified Family Law Specialist, he practices in the areas of divorce, time-sharing of children and parenting plans, child support, alimony, paternity, pre-nuptial and post-nuptial agreements, and cohabitation/partnership agreements.
As an experienced Collaborative attorney, Bob continually hones his skills in the Collaborative Process and trains other professionals how to become a Collaborative professional as he is.
“My goal is to help divorcing and other family law clients make well-informed decisions so they experience a more efficient process and feel more in control over their futures.”
