We are very excited to announce that on December 10, 2018, Valerie Qian will begin a position in the Circuit Executive's office at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.  While this departure will prevent Valerie from continuing to represent and mediate for Skylark's clients, we want to wish her the best of luck in this new endeavor. Valerie's Message: After more than five and a half years, I will be leaving Skylark Law & Mediation, where I have been since the days we were still called Kelsey & Trask and our offices were located in Framingham. I am sad to be leaving the team after so long. I've learned a lot here from Justin, Melissa, Beth, Julie and Jen and others from the team who have moved on over the years, and will look back with fond memories at the time I've spent here. I'll be moving on to a position in the Circuit Executive's office at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and commuting to Bos...

Guest post by Kristyn Stoia : Unless you’ve ever faced barriers while using a website, Web Accessibility is probably something that you’ve likely never heard of. However, there are numerous hurdles those with various impairments face when using the web, especially since the vast majority of sites aren’t designed with these needs in mind. A website is regarded to be Accessible when measures have been taken to make certain that obstacles are removed to give equal access to the user. It also means that regardless of someone's physical, mental, or cognitive condition that they are able to freely use a website to obtain information and services. Here at Skylark Law & Mediation, PC , we took numerous steps to ensure Accessibility for each and every one of our users. We strived to adhere to the WCAG Outlines for Accessibility which means creating a site that was perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. In doing this, we took some specific measures: We began by addi...

Skylark Law & Mediation, PC is excited to welcome Jennifer Hawthorne to our family of collaborative practitioners.  Jennifer is a trained mediator and collaborative family and probate attorney with a background in financial services.   She is the mother of three wonderful children and a new puppy.  She is also on the Board of Directors of the  Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation . Here is what Jennifer would like to share about her journey to Skylark: My path to working as an associate at Skylark Law and Mediation has been a little unusual. Many times, the career path for a family law lawyer/mediator goes something like this this: For me, so far, my path has been a little different: For some, this may seem like a backward step in the “normal” path of a law career. For me, if feels like the most natural step down my path.   Opening my firm had nothing to do with feeling like I had reached the point in my career where I was ready...

Skylark Law & Mediation, PC will soon be moving to Southborough, Massachusetts and it's an opportunity for us and other like-minded professionals.  Our new home will be a building in downtown Southborough, called  the Collaborative Outpost , which has a particular mission: To Provide an Enjoyable Work Space for Collaboratively Minded Professionals ACCOMPLISHING THE MISSION: Justin Kelsey , who will also be a manager of the Collaborative Outpost, first opened his law firm with Matthew Trask as Kelsey & Trask, PC in 2008.  Since that time Kelsey & Trask, PC has evolved into Skylark Law & Mediation, PC , a leader in the resolution of family and probate disputes.  Justin is active in the mediation and collaborative law communities and has long dreamed of opening a shared work space that could expand on the model that has worked so well for Skylark (now a firm with five attorney/mediators). The Collaborative Outpost is the realization o...

Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. and Think Pink Law  wish health, happiness and peace for all of our clients, colleagues, mentors, followers, visitors, well-wishers and even our distant relations. Our practices focus on solutions reached as often as possible through peaceful, rather than adversarial, processes.  Even when we expect to disagree, we try to begin all of our conversations recognizing the basic human dignity of the other involved parties.  Through that approach we hope to reduce the conflict in a world that is full of conflicts that seem unsolvable. When that fails there will always be funny internet videos to cheer us up.

One of my favorite NSFW musicals is Avenue Q , where the main character (a puppet / liberal arts graduate), spends most of the story  trying to find his purpose in life.  I think it strikes a chord with me because I am constantly re-examining whether my work reflects my values.  When Attorney Trask left Kelsey & Trask, P.C. last year, I was given an opportunity to reconsider how this firm reflected what I, personally, found most important. Throughout the last year, that self-reflection has resulted in some changes that helped us focus more on our dispute resolution work and resulted in the creation of Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. - where we help families resolve conflict. That has become the central theme of our work and with that focus we have removed some practice areas and added others, and we have grown our staff to cover those new practice areas. First, what have we removed?  Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. will no longer be handling bankrup...

At Skylark Law & Mediation, PC all of our attorneys and staff are trained mediators.  Even for those who do not mediate, the skills involved in mediation training assist in all forms of conflict resolution and negotiation.  If you are interested in learning more, check out the upcoming Family Law Mediation Workshop 2015 - offered by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. Justin Kelsey , the owner of Skylark Law & Mediation, PC and an MCFM Certified Mediator  will be one of the trainers on the first day. For more information or to register click here.

Kelsey & Trask, P.C. was formed in 2008 by Justin Kelsey and Matthew Trask, and since that time we have grown and changed in many ways.  With Matt's recent opportunity to join Remington Arms , we've re-evaluated what Kelsey & Trask, P.C. means to us and to our clients.  Our new name, Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C., reflects who we are today and what qualities we want to continue to bring to our clients.  Skylark represents the future of our firm, while not forgetting where we came from.  Symbolizing that ongoing connection to our past, the letters from Skylark are all contained within our original name, Kelsey & Trask. What is a skylark?  A skylark is a modest but agile song-bird that typically travels in small flocks, and sings at dawn.  While these changes represent a new day at Skylark Law and Mediation, we shall remain a small firm that doesn't apologize for being small. Our close-knit team has a variety of experience and expertise,...